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Paul French

@chinarhyming.bsky.social
1.3K followers 172 following 3.2K posts

Author of Midnight in Peking, City of Devils, Murders of Old China, Peking Noir, The Defectors, Her Lotus Year. The Last Emperor of China is out now. Return to the City of Darkness - Kowloon Walled City now on BBCSounds. Agent - Aitken-Alexander

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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 9m
A 1960 Penguin Special edition of Kuo Ping-chia's (1908-2004) China: New Age and New Outlook (originally published 1956). You can read Kuo's interesting bio, below…
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 3h
A piece on writing The Last Emperor of China for Aspects of History…. aspectsofhistory.com/recovering-t...
aspectsofhistory.com
Recovering the Last Emperor and Empress of China - Aspects of History
Paul French discusses how recently discovered diary from an American tutor who lived with Puyi and Wanrong offers an new perspective on the young couple’s marriage and the usual portrayal of China’s l...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 18h
October 2 2026 - ChinaRhyming - Ballard’s Shanghai, the Hongkou Ghetto, 4 Last Emperor locations in Beijing and some events this month.... paulfrench.substack.com/p/october-2-...
paulfrench.substack.com
October 2 2026 - ChinaRhyming - Ballard’s Shanghai, the Hongkou Ghetto and some events this month
October - from JG Ballard’s Shanghai to that of the Jewish refugees of WW2; Beijing’s Last Emperor locations, books in Oz & future events
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 22h
Frederik Logervall’s Embers of War is a detailed study of the end of French colonialism in Indochina and the ensuing liberation struggles that to the mire the United States eventually found itself in losing a war to the Vietcong.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 23h
Lovely to visit the beautiful John Sandoe bookshop in Chelsea and thanks to them for being my bookseller at the Chelsea History Festival…..
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Reposted by Paul French
Laurence Westwood @lwestwoodauthor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
#histbookchat Great essay from Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social on the dystopian fiction of J.G. Ballard and war-torn Shanghai!
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Dragon dance, Hong Kong, Coronation Day of George VI, May 12 1937
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A piece for That’s mags in China - 4 Last Emperor of China Locations to Visit in Beijing (that aren’t the Forbidden City, which is a bit obvious….) - Zhangwang Hutong; Mao’er Hutong; Dengshikou and; Prince Chun’s Mansion…. www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/pos...
thatsmags.com
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Late 19th century Chinese silver card case hallmarked for WingNam, Hong Kong, with pierced and repoussé decoration of a dragon amongst clouds.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Many thanks Foyles, Charing Cross Road….appreciated
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hey Singapore - The Last Emperor of China has arrived! Copies now available at lovely Kinokuniya and indie stores all over….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Sporadic rain all this week in London / but my Voicemap GPS walking tour of Somerset House gives you plenty of opportunities - from the Courtauld and other galleries to cafes and excellent restaurants such as Poon’s…. Perhaps the perfect autumn tour… voicemap.me/tour/london/...
voicemap.me
Somerset House Audio Guide: Georgian Powerhouse to Modern Arts Hub | London self-guided audio tour | VoiceMap
Step onto the block where Britain governed, broadcast to the world and made art with this self-guided tour of London, the United Kingdom. For the best experience, install the VoiceMap audio guide app ...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Sweet haul at The Bookshop, Wigtown, Scotland’s book town, of old Ann Bridge orange Penguins and Kuo Ping/cha’s early paean to communist China, why the Kuomintang fell and how the Communist Party consolidated its power.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Loving Waterstones on High Holborn….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I never don’t include at least a couple of pubs on one of my Voicemap GPS walking tours! For my walk Writers, Artists and Ne’er-do-wells: A Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia Walk it’s the Newman Arms at 23 Rathbone Street, established in 1730. voicemap.me/tour/london/...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Reginald Johnston was a keen amateur photographer all his life - a passion he passed along to Puyi and Wanrong in the Forbidden City. So naturally after he bought the Scottish island of Eilean Righ he photographed it… (The Stewart Lockhart Photographic Archive, George Watson’s College, Edinburgh)
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Former British diplomat in China, tutor to Puyi, professor of Chinese at SOAS Reginald Johnston’s private Scottish island Eilean Righ off the Argyle coast. The story of his island is here - paulfrench.substack.com/p/september-...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Got over £6.5mn spare? You could buy Reginald Johnston’s Scottish Island. In the 30s Johnston, former British diplomat and tutor to the last emperor Puyi, bought himself a Scottish Island... Now you can buy it too...it was the ultimate expat return home!! paulfrench.substack.com/p/september-...
paulfrench.substack.com
September 26 2026 - ChinaRhyming - Got over £6,500,000 to spare? You could buy Reginald Johnston’s Scottish Island...
In the 1930s Sir Reginald Johnston, former British diplomat and tutor to the last emperor Puyi, bought himself a Scottish Island... Now you can buy it too...it was the ultimate expat return home!!
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A favourite building of mine in Shanghai’s ild French Concession, the Blackstone Apartments on Rue Lafayette (Fuxing Zhong Lu), built 1924. The imported English stone gives it a unique darker & more gothic appearance. There was originally a pool (as the ad says), which is sadly long gone.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is news i can use thebay.mo/eat-drink/po...
thebay.mo
Hong Kong bakery beats Macao in Bloomberg's Portuguese-style egg tart list • The Bay
Bloomberg carried out a blind taste test, ranking Bakehouse's Portuguese-style egg tart at the top, with Macao’s Lord Stow’s in third place
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
My thanks to a token collecting friend who came across this Jack Riley (Edward Thomas riley - ETR) issued slot machine 10cents token for Farren’s nightclub. Of course “Lucky Jack”, the “Slots King of Shanghai” is a major character in my book of old Shanghai gangster life, City of Devils….
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My event in The Last Emperor of China next Thursday (Oct 1) at the Chelsea History Festival sold out quite quickly, but they’ve jiggled the room around and a few more tickets are now available…. chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/events/last-...
chelsea-pensioners.co.uk
The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City with Paul French - Chelsea History Festival | Royal Hospital Chelsea
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Podcast: Advertising in Shanghai, 1905-1949, with Cécile Armand - in French Organized by the Société d'Histoire des Français de Chine Cécile Armand, associate professor of history at the Institute of East Asia, Lyon. Watch the audio recording of the interview: wiki.histoire-chine.fr/index.php/La...
wiki.histoire-chine.fr
La publicité à Shanghai, 1905-1949, avec Cécile Armand — Histoire de Chine
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
24/9/26 - ChinaRhyming - Just a heads up on The Last Emperor of China making stops in Scotland at the Wigtown Festival & Chelsea for their History Festival. + an FT review, a UK Kindle deal, the RAS China Journal in hard copy & the latest from ChinaRhyming… paulfrench.substack.com/p/september-...
paulfrench.substack.com
September 24 2026 - ChinaRhyming - Wigtown Book Festival & The Chelsea History Festival
Just a heads up on The Last Emperor of China making stops in Scotland at the Wigtown Festival and Chelsea for their History Festival. + an FT review, a UK Kindle deal, and the RAS China Journal
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A Chinese export silver rectangular box, by Luen Hing, Shanghai,  embossed and engraved with a dragon
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The British barracks at Victoria Harbour (East), Hong Kong, c.late nineteenth century
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
John Simpson, the veteran BBC World Affairs Editor, is the Guest Curator of this year’s Chelsea History Festival. And these are his top festival picks - including me on The Last Emperor of China, Thursday 1 October - 12.00pm in the Royal Hospital Chelsea, State Apartments mailchi.mp/chelseaherit...
mailchi.mp
John Simpson’s Festival Picks | Chelsea History Festival 2026
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Hong Kong Island looking across Victoria Harbour toward the Kowloon peninsula, c.late 19th century
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Shanghai under Japanese occupation….in 1942 US journalist Bernard Covit, a POW, was transferred to Shanghai. For a time b4 he was interned he walked the coty streets & observed life under the Japanese & Wang Jing-wei’s regime. And later he wrote it up... paulfrench.substack.com/p/september-...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Last Empress and Emperor Wanrong and Puyi photographed around the time of their marriage in 1922 when both just 16… The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City (Elliot & Thompson) is out now in the UK; US in November.
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This fortnight’s @crimereads.bsky.social Crime and the City heads north (for me anyway) to Liverpool for some Scouse Noir…. crimereads.com/crime-and-th...
crimereads.com
Crime and the City: Liverpool
Frankly I’ve always been surprised that more crime fiction writers haven’t adopted Liverpool, or simply “the ‘pool’” for their location. It’s a city packed with character, a port town with strong w…
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Chengdu University, 2010
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Exclusive: 84yrs ago American Journalist Bernard Covit arrived in Japanese-Occupied Shanghai. Here is Covit’s account of Shanghai between Fall 1942 to his internment in Pudong in Feb 1943...It’s a unique & revealing portrait of life in occupied Shanghai... paulfrench.substack.com/p/september-...
paulfrench.substack.com
September 21 2026 - ChinaRhmying - Exclusive: 84 Years Ago American Journalist & POW Bernard Covit Arrived in Japanese-Occupied Shanghai...
Below is Covit’s account of his time in Japanese-occupied Shanghai between autumn 1942 to his internment in Pudong in February 1943...It’s a unique & revealing portrait of life in occupied Shanghai...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Women in Canton (Guangzhou) browse in a modern dress shop, 1937. Photo by Suikee Mack
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
If you’re strolling along Piccadilly there are signed copies of The Last Emperor of China at Hatchards…..
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Amazon UK has a special offer on the Kindle ebook of The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City - £5.79 Limited Time Deal. "Paul French’s latest book brings with it a feminine voice of modernity... immensely readable." —South China Morning Post www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GX2WLCZ...
amazon.co.uk
The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City eBook : French, Paul: Amazon.co.uk: Books
The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City eBook : French, Paul: Amazon.co.uk: Books
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Two aerial views of Hong Kong harbour, c.1930s
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This weekend why not get out and explore London’s Somerset House from King’s to the Courtauld, Bush House to the views from the River Terrace, through the quadrangle and the archways…From Georgian Powerhouse to Modern Arts Hub…. voicemap.me/tour/london/...
voicemap.me
Somerset House Audio Guide: Georgian Powerhouse to Modern Arts Hub | London self-guided audio tour | VoiceMap
Step onto the block where Britain governed, broadcast to the world and made art with this self-guided tour of London, the United Kingdom. For the best experience, install the VoiceMap audio guide app ...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Depending on where you are you may, or may not, be able to access this FT review of my new book, The Last Emperor of China. The highlight? ‘[Paul French] is a master storyteller … evocative.’ Financial Times www.ft.com/content/f4b6...
ft.com
The Last Emperor of China — Paul French on the life of Puyi
A compelling biography of the divine monarch and the vanished world he represented
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Loving Daunts Marylebone…
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Remembering the rather forgotten Canadian novelist Anne Duffield and her old Peking novels…. paulfrench.substack.com/p/september-...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Sept 17 - ChinaRhyming - Those Romantic Foreigners of Old Peking - Anne Duffield's The Lacquer Couch, 1928. Duffield is a forgotten novelist who wrote 52 books! Her first is set in Peking & is worth noting... +The Last Emperor Kindle deal & me in the SCMP... paulfrench.substack.com/p/september-...
paulfrench.substack.com
September 17 2026 - ChinaRhyming - Those Romantic Foreigners of Old Peking - Anne Duffield’s The Lacquer Couch, 1928
Anne Duffield is a forgotten novelist who wrote 52 books! Her first, The Lacquer Couch, is set in post-Great War Peking & is worth noting... +The Last Emperor Kindle deal & me in the SCMP’s PostMag...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Much love to Heffers bookshop in Cambridge from The Last Emperor of China
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This outing my Crimereads Crime and the City column takes an excursion to the Azores...… crimereads.com/crime-and-th...
crimereads.com
Crime and the City: The Azores
Nine volcanic islands in the mid-Atlantic Ocean that are technically part of Portugal, though are 1,500 km west of the Portuguese mainland. The Azores consist of (among a few other islands) São Mig…
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Lucky lucky Hong Kong!! - the beautiful new flagship branch of Bookazine has just opened on 3/F at the Landmark Atrium on Queen’s Road Central. Books, books, books, coffee…and (i’m told) wine too! And, of course, loving the checkout…
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The story of a century old tapestry from Beijing explained. A curiosity from old Peking found at auction, that recalls a year the Royal Army Medical Corps spent in northern China, finds a home. paulfrench.substack.com/p/september-...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
September 18 2026 - ChinaRhyming - A curiosity from old Peking finally finds a home at the Museum of Military Medicine, last call for my RAS Beijing Zoom on The Last Emperor of China and the latest from Chinarhyming.com... paulfrench.substack.com/p/september-...
paulfrench.substack.com
September 18 2026 - ChinaRhyming - Peking British Legation Guard Royal Army Medical Corps & an RAS Zoom
A curiosity from old Peking finally finds a home at the Museum of Military Medicine, last call for my RAS Beijing Zoom on The Last Emperor of China and the latest from Chinarhyming.com...
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Sad to hear of the death of movie producer Jeremy Thomas - The Last Emperor of course but also The Sheltering Sky, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and Sexy Beast among so many other great films. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/se...
theguardian.com
Jeremy Thomas obituary
Film producer who enjoyed his greatest success with the 1987 epic The Last Emperor for which he won an Oscar
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Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Vibe Books and Vinyl, Mui Wo, South Lantau, Hong Kong....a must visit bookshop by the ferry terminal
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