John Michael Beaumont makes an unusual despot. In his standard-issue pensioner’s outfit – cosy crewneck jumper, blue work trousers, grey leather-look shoes – the 79-year-old ex-aircraft engineer looks much like any other septuagenarian. He drinks tea. He tends his garden. He potters. Kim Jong Il he most certainly is not. However benign, though, Beaumont is an old-fashioned sort of dictator – the hereditary overlord of the last independent feudal state in the world.