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 Midnight in Peking.

This article is about the British author born in 1966. For the author of the Lucky Starr series published between 1952 and 1958, see Isaac Asimov.

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. There he co-founded the independent research firm Access Asia. It specialises in analysing Chinese consumer and retail markets. In September 2011 Access Asia was acquired by the London-based market research company Mintel. French is now a full-time author based in London.

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.

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.

Midnight in Peking

Midnight in Peking (2012) is French's most commercially successful title. It has appeared on numerous best-seller lists around the world and won several awards:

Midnight in Peking was also a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.

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

Sole-authored works
  • 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)
  • 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). ISBN 9780143121008.
  • 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). ISBN 9781780329475.
  • City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir (London: riverrun, 2018; New York: Picador, 2018). ISBN 9781787470330.

References
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