All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
Talking old Macao on the Asian Review of Books Podcast with Nick Gordon and my recent essay collection Destination Macao (Blacksmith Books) made me want to dig some old photos – these from 2009…. Listen to the podcast here
I’ll be talking Wallis Simpson in China at The Meridian Society, SOAS, London – July 19, 3.30pm (and with slides, and books for sale – what more could you want!)
Date: Saturday July 19th 2025
Time: 3:30 pm
Venue: the Djam Lecture Theatre (DLT) at SOAS University of London, 10 Thornhaugh St, London WC1H 0XG
Please RSVP by the 1st of July by emailing themeridiansociety@gmail.com.
A UK e-book bargain!!! Wallis Simpson: Her Lotus Year in 1920s China by Paul French is just 99p in ebook – for a limited time only!
‘Compelling’ Dr Amanda Foreman
‘Fascinating’ Lisa See
‘Riveting’ Anne Sebba
‘Surprising’ Anne de Courcy
My latest column for Macau Closer magazine is a look back at Ernest K Gann’s 1954 novel Soldier of Fortune that takes place between Hong Kong and Macau and later became a Hollywood movie with Clark Gable and Susan Haywood. How does Macau come out of the novel…and the movie? Click here to read….
I’m rather pleased with this UK paperback of Her Lotus Year…. thanks to all at Elliot & Thompson in London… many thanks to Anne Sebba, Amanada Foreman and Lisa See for their blurbs and also to Caroline Moorehead in The Spectator and the legendary Nicky Haslam in The Oldie.
Available from July 10 everywhere books are sold in the UK… (and a bargain at £10.99 I reckon…)
These sketches recently came up for auction – very interesting indeed. Clearly the artist was in Macao and possibly near Canton, in or around the time of the First Opium War (1839-1842) – certainly, as Captain John Spencer Churchill died at Macao in 1840 these sketches are slightly later. The sketch of the attack on Canton in 1840 suggests the artist was with the Navy in China – perhaps HMS Volage or HMS Hyacinth. Sadly though they remain unattributed.
The Protestant Graveyard, Macao, c.1840
Mark Kitto’s China Running Dog (Plum Rain Press)… (those who know Kitto will see elements of auto-biography here!)…
A young man in his early twenties has two basic needs: mates and respect. And a third of course. That’s a given and it was there for the taking in Shanghai in the year 2000, a greed-crazed free-for-all in a moral and lawless vacuum created by the Chinese Communist Party.
Johnny Trent, small-time entrepreneur from Basildon in the UK, has neither mates nor respect. That’s why he went to China, where he meets Felix Fawcett-Smith, fresh off the boat and from the other side of the tracks. An unlikely friendship begins.
Johnny impresses the well-bred Felix with his street smarts until Felix takes Johnny’s advice too literally – and too far – and slip into Shanghai’s murky underbelly. He enters a world where the Party and power and connections to them are all that matter, where criminals are given sainthoods and saints sent to hell.
Johnny tries to stop Felix’s spiral, not least because Felix is taking a sweet, angelic girl, Anita, down with him and Johnny has feelings for Anita that he has never dared to put into words. But Felix thinks he knows best. Like Johnny, all he wants is respect.
He gets a lot more, a lot worse. It’s up to Johnny to save whoever he can, besides himself.
Published as part of the Penguin Archive series, Jasmine Tea, is a bit of a con as all the stories are also in the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Lust, Caution. However, Jasmine Tea is a good story and The Golden Cangue, also included in the short collection of 3 short stories, is one of my favourites and set in Shanghai. So nice to have, but repetitive….
