Author Q&A: Paul French

Author/ Bookish Everybody
20 July 2025

Some of you will have been lucky enough to hear Paul French at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, speaking about his book Her Lotus Years. In this interview, he talks about his background, how he grew to respect Wallis Simpson during his writing about her and how he has favourite bookshops on pretty much every continent.

How did you become a writer?

Part by accident, part by design. I’d always thought it would be nice to write full-time – you get long periods of being alone and then, once a book comes out, a burst of being social – which suits me. But how to fund such a life? I was lucky that I wrote Midnight in Peking while also having a day job and living in Shanghai. It did well, someone wanted to buy the company and so the stars aligned. Fortunately I wasn’t totally a “one hit wonder” and have managed to survive ever since on writing.

What would you be doing otherwise?

Well, I ran a market research publishing company in China for 16 years, started with a friend who’d also studied Chinese. It was fun and reasonably profitable though neither of us ever bought stately homes. And, amazingly to us, a much bigger company bought us, liberating us to go off and do other things. I guess, if not for the success of Midnight in Peking, I’d have found another China job somewhere – I haven’t lived or worked full time in China for a decade now but I still get headhunters approaching me on Linked In. Not sure what that tells you except maybe 1.) the pool of 50-something Englishmen who are wanted in China and want to go there is shallow? 2.) there’s a very serious lack of expat candidates for China jobs or (and almost certainly the reason) 3.) HR people don’t really take the time to read my profile!

Of the characters you have created, which is your favourite and why?

Well I loved writing about “Dapper” Joe Farren and “Lucky” Jack Riley in City of Devils. They were both real-life old Shanghai characters and perhaps more chancers and rogues than hardened criminals (well Joe anyway!). Both of them symbolised that weird period between the Japanese attack on Shanghai in 1937 and the complete takeover of the foreign concessions in 1941. For while Shanghai was equal parts their playground and their hellhole. But those guys, slightly dodgy as they both were for sure, had a lot of fun. I was amazed by how many people had left fond memories of them and their antics in their nightclubs, bars and casinos. I also have to mention Wallis Simpson as I wasn’t overly sympathetic to her when I began Her Lotus Year about the time she spent in China in the 1920s. But as I dug deeper and found out more – not least that she was horribly violently abused by her first husband in Hong Kong, and just how gutsy she was to get out of that situation and dive into a chaotic China – I became a lot more fond of her (whatever happened to her later in life). And, of course, Pamela Werner, the horribly murdered young woman of Midnight in Peking, still stays constantly in my mind.

Tell us about your writing method. Is there a secret?

The secret to writing is to write. Seriously, stop talking about it, stop thinking about it and making excuses and just do it. My other trick is to have multiple projects on the go – books, short articles, blog posts, book reviews, whatever…. when you, inevitably, run out of steam on one thing just switch over to something else you’re fresh on and work on that. Nobody can maintain a daily intensity on one book – you’ll burn out… fast. But write something everyday – in a notebook, on your phone, sitting quietly with a laptop. And don’t so much time on social media!

Which author, alive or dead, would you most like to meet?

Graham Greene – I also read and re-read him. He had a dedicated writing schedule – 2,000 words a day before lunch, then maybe edit those 2,000 after lunch. He never signed a contract for more than 80,000 words (though did write some longer books) – he knew readers’ attention spans were finite, nobody wants to spent 6 months reading one book and 80,000 (I’d say always under 100,000) words was always enough to get your story or ideas across, grab the reader, interest them and then exit stage left before they get bored of you.

Tell us about your favourite bookshop in the world.

Tough question to a book lover. I happen to live in London almost opposite Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street, which combines many things I like – an emphasis on travel books, really knowledgeable staff and a beautiful building (stained glass!!! in a bookshop). John Sandoe’s in Chelsea is also a cavernous delight of literature. For Chinese books I love JF Books on Washington DC’s Dupont Circle and All Sages Bookstore (Wansheng) in Beijing (hopefully it’s still out there in Haidian – I haven’t been that way for a while). I can spend hours in the Strand BookStore on Broadway in New York, or Powell’s in Portland too. I always love visiting Bookazine’s new store at Tai Kwun in Hong Kong as they always have so much locally produced memoirs and novels I haven’t seen outside Hong Kong and similarly so with Livraria Portuguesa on Rua de São Domingos in Macao. And, of course where would we be without piled high second hand bookshops, so don’t forget Skoob in Bloomsbury, Librarie You Feng on Rue Monsieur le Prince in Paris (also a China specialist shop) and Vibe by the ferry terminal at Mui Wo (Lantau)

What advice would you give your younger, writer self?

Of course, stop procrastinating and write… and keep on reading. If you don’t read, you won’t write. There’s never been an even half decent writer who wasn’t a voracious writer.

About the Author

Bookish Everybody

Books and reading are too often on the periphery. Enter: Bookish Everybody, a one-stop community of book enthusiasts to read or write reviews, join read-alongs, buy/sell/give books and join our competitions to win books: www.bookisheverybody.com.