He and his business partner, Nur Ahmet Mahmut, 32, publish anything they can find, from Uighur history and literature to children’s stories and cookery books. They sell symbols of their hoped-for republic, East Turkestan — such as its sky blue flag with white crescent and star — items that are outlawed in China.

The dog ate my sandwich, and there was shrapnel all over the place from him tearing open the bag.

For a low-key, somewhat predictable meal, dinner at Basem's offers good value.

Even our modern services, I fear, are at times suspect in this respect, demanding degrees of literacy and bookmanship increasingly not found.