Paul French (author)

Paul French (born 27 August 1966) is a British author. In addition to articles about a range of subjects, he has specialised in books about modern Chinese history and contemporary Chinese society, including the murder mystery ''Midnight in Peking''.

Biography

French was born in the London Borough of Enfield. He attended Raglan Junior School and Edmonton County School, North London. He gained an M.Phil from the University of Glasgow and studied Chinese at the City Literary Institute. After university French worked briefly for ''Time Out'' magazine and ''Euromonitor'' in London before relocating to Shanghai. In 1997 he co-founded the independent research firm Access Asia. It specialised in analysing Chinese consumer and retail markets. In September 2011 Access Asia was acquired by the London-based market research company Mintel. French left the company and China and has subsequently become a full-time novelist based in London. His forthcoming novel is purportedly about the time Wallace Simpson spent in Shanghai between 1936 and 1938.

Journalism and publishing

French was columnist for the ''China Economic Quarterly'' and the ''China Economic Review'' as well as being a columnist for and the China Editor of ''Ethical Corporation'' magazine. French has contributed to ''Foreign Policy'', ''The Washington Post'', '' South China Morning Post'', ''Shanghai Daily'', ''The Guardian'', ''The Cleaver Quarterly'' and ''The Diplomat''.
French is a contributor to the UK's ''Real Crime'' magazine.

As a book reviewer, French has contributed to the (British) ''Literary Review'', ''The Washington Post'', ''The Asian Review of Books'', and the ''Los Angeles Review of Books''. He is the author of the fortnightly "Crime and the City" column for ''Literary Hub''. French has also made literary contributions to the '' Asia Literary Review'' and '' Cha: An Asian Literary Journal''. His recent 2023 series 'The Ultimate China Bookshelf' contained inclusions such as Mao Zedong's 'Little Red Book' and other archaic economic and political writings from 1945 onwards and proved less successful, described as 'Struggling to keep up with contemporary China affairs'.

He is also a former board member of the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club and a member of the Korea Research Hub (KRH) based within Leeds and Sheffield universities. French was also a member of the editorial advisory board for Anthem Press's ‘China in the Twenty First Century’ series and the Honorary Research and Publications Director for the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland – China Branch. In 2011 French launched the Asian Arguments series of books for Zed Booksacting as the Series Editor.

French is also the author of the blog
China Rhyming: A gallimaufry of random China history and research interests
'.

Works

As solo author

Works by French alone

*''North Korea The Paranoid Peninsula: A Modern History'' (Zed Books, 2005, updated edition, 2007)
*''Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand – The Life, Times and Adventures of an American in Shanghai'' (Hong Kong University Press, 2006) Life and times of Crow.
*''Through the Looking Glass: China Foreign Journalists From Opium War to Mao'' (Hong Kong University Press, 2009)
*''The Old Shanghai A-Z'' (Hong Kong University Press, 2010)
*'' Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China'' (Beijing: Viking, 2011; London: Viking, 2012; New York: Penguin Books, Rev., 2012). .
*''The Badlands: Decadent Playground of Old Peking'' (Asia and Australia: Penguin Specials, 2012; London, New York: Penguin Specials, 2013)
*''North Korea: State of Paranoia'' (London: Zed Books, 2014). .
*''City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai'' (London: riverrun, 2018; New York: Picador, 2018). .

Co-authored works

*''One Billion Shoppers: Accessing Asia's Consuming Passions After the Meltdown'' (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 1998) – with Matthew Crabbe
*''Oil on Water: Tankers, Pirates and the Rise of China'' (Zed Books, 2010) – with Sam Chambers
*''Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation'' (Anthem Press, 2010) – with Matthew Crabbe

References

Paul French
. Melbourne Writers Festival.

Paul French
. Penguin Books Australia.

Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking, answers Ten Terrifying Questions
. Booktopia Blog. 11 August 2011.

External links

Midnight in Peking website

China Rhyming
* Jonathan Spence
"Who Killed Pamela in Peking?"
(Review of ''Midnight in Peking''), ''New York Review of Books'' 21 March 2013.

{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Paul

1966 births
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
British historians
Living people
People from the London Borough of Enfield