Paul French started off his latest book tour for “Midnight in Peking” in Australia with some raving reviews by local media. “He has discovered there is a growing audience who, like him, is fascinated by the world of the old China hands,” writes the Australian.
The Australian:
The book is set in the 1930s — the victim is killed in 1937 — and Chinese readers are intrigued that there were white Russians and Jews in Beijing in those days, French says.
He encountered the story of the mysterious and shocking murder of Pamela Werner when reading old newspapers. But because it had not been solved he presumed the ending would have to remain open. However, French later had a “eureka moment” when, trawling through the British National Archives in Kew, he discovered an investigation, previously filed but lost in the chaos of World War II, that effectively solved the murder.
French’s stylish third-person narrative has also been something of a eureka moment. “Just a historian before”, French is now being recast as a literary figure, and he’s enjoying the resulting upmarket treatment.
Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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- Obesity: not yet seen as a health threat in China – Paul French (chinaherald.net)
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