Paul French lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. After a career as a commentator on China he is now a full-time author and historian focusing on China in the first half of the twentieth century. His book Midnight in Peking was a New York Times bestseller, a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award winner for Best Fact Crime and a Crime Writers' Association (UK) Dagger Award for non-fiction. City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir focuses on the casinos and cabarets of wartime Shanghai. It was a Kirkus Book of the Year 2018. Both Midnight in Peking and City of Devils have been optioned for television.French is a contributor to publications including Literary Hub, The Financial Times Weekend and Crime Reads. He also works in radio drama with productions including Death at the Airport: The Plot Against Kim Jong Nam for BBC Radio and a 12-part Audible Original series, Murders of Old China.