Skip to main content

Paul French

Biography

Paul French

Born in London and educated there and in Glasgow, Paul French has lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. He is a widely published analyst and commentator on China and has written a number of books, including a history of foreign correspondents in China and a biography of the legendary Shanghai adman, journalist and adventurer Carl Crow. His book MIDNIGHT IN PEKING was a New York Times bestseller, a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and will be made into an international miniseries by Kudos Film and Television, the UK creators of "Broadchurch" and "Life on Mars."

Paul French

Books by Paul French

by Paul French - History, Nonfiction

1930s Shanghai was a haven for outlaws from all over the world: a place where pasts could be forgotten, fascism and communism outrun, names invented, and fortunes made --- and lost. “Lucky” Jack Riley was the most notorious of those outlaws. An ex–U.S. Navy boxing champion, he escaped from prison and rose to become the Slots King of Shanghai. “Dapper” Joe Farren --- a Jewish boy who fled Vienna’s ghetto --- ruled the nightclubs. In 1940, Lucky Jack and Dapper Joe bestrode the Shanghai Badlands like kings, while all around the Solitary Island was poverty, starvation and war. They thought they ruled Shanghai, but the city had other ideas. This is the story of their rise to power, their downfall, and the trail of destruction left in their wake.

by Paul French - Nonfiction, True Crime

Historian and China expert Paul French at last uncovers the truth behind the notorious murder of a young Englishwoman, and offers a rare glimpse of the last days of colonial Peking.