Paul French is the author of the prize-winning Midnight in Peking and City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir. Both books became bestsellers and are now being adapted for TV.

Paul lived in Shanghai for many years researching, writing and blogging about the city as it was between the world wars. His life-long obsession with old Shanghai and the foreigners who once lived in the most cosmopolitan of world cities has led to his researching many tales and life stories, some of which are gathered in Destination Shanghai.