Books by Paul French

A spellbinding and dramatic account of Shanghai's lawless 1930s and two of its most notorious criminals, by the author of the prize winning Midnight in Peking

Based on true stories and new research, Paul French weaves together the stories of those Jewish refugees who moved on from wartime Shanghai to seek a possible route to freedom via the Portuguese colony of Macao - "the Casablanca of the Orient". The delicately balanced neutral enclave became their wartime home, amid Nazi and Japanese spies, escaped Allied prisoners from Hong Kong, and displaced Chinese. Strangers on the Praia relates the story of one young woman's struggle for freedom that would ultimately prove an act of brave resistance.

A gripping and provocative account of one of the world's most secretive countries.

Midnight in Peking is a gripping true murder mystery by Paul FrenchTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4'A first-rate murder story, a thrilling narrative. Hurtles along from one cliffhanger to the next' SpectatorPeking, 1937:The teenage daughter of a British consul is brutally slaughtered. The police investigation is botched; as war looms British and Chinese authorities close ranks. A grieving father vows to uncover the truth - alone.Seventy-five years later, historian Paul French uncovers a stash of forgotten documents revealing the killer's identity . . .For those who loved The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil this is a riveting and evocative true crime classic.'Gripping, spellbinding . . . drawing the reader from the very first pages into an unwholesome, macabre world' Guardian'Part historical docudrama, part tragic opera . . . it is French's enormous achievement that he pieces together the puzzle. He tells this tale with the skill of an Agatha Christie' Financial Times'Fascinating and irresistible. I couldn't put it down'John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'Vivid, pulsating, riveting. It is the storytelling flair that marks Midnight in Peking so highly: with its false leads and twists . . . it sucks the reader in like the best fiction' ScotsmanBorn in London, Paul French has lived in China for more than 10 years. He is a widely published analyst and commentator on China; his books include a history of North Korea, a biography of Shanghai adman and adventurer Carl Crow, and a history of foreign correspondents in China.

The uninterrupted flow of oil is essential to globalisation and increasingly so as manufacturing and markets move Eastwards to Asia. All too often the movement of oil by ocean is something taken for granted, yet it is fraught with difficulty. This book looks at the way oil is moved and consumed mixing reportage, examples and hard-hitting facts.

China's economy has boomed, but a potentially disastrous side effect - along with pollution and a growing income gap between urban and rural regions - is the effects obesity will have on the country's fragile healthcare system. Today's overweight in China can look to a mixed future of bright economic hopes for their country, and poor and deteriorating health for themselves. From a situation 20 years ago when diets were limited by food availability, and famine was still a recent memory, China's urban centres have seen alarmingly rising rates of obesity. Throughout the country an estimated 200 million people out of a total population of around 1.3 billion were overweight (over 15%). Why is this issue so important? Taking into account that the recent period of stable world economic growth has in large part been driven by the availability of cheap labour in China, which produces much of the goods that keep the retail tills ringing elsewhere in the world, the issue of China's rising obesity is an issue of potentially global economic significance. Consider a scenario just a few years down the line, where there are so many overweight urban Chinese, suffering from obesity-related illness, that the government, in order to pay for increased healthcare treatments, has to raise the levels of income and other tax to pay for this huge and continual expense.For more information please see the book website: http://fatchina.anthempressblog.com