"Opium-addict, concubine, missionary, spy--Paul French brings to life the larger-than-life personalities of a bygone China foreign press corps. Reading Through the Looking Glass makes me wish I'd become an old China hand a century earlier." --Melinda Liu, w

"Paul French's latest publication is a fascinating hybrid of a book. It's part wonderfully useful reference tool (detailing who covered China when for which newspaper), part irreverent and gossipy behind the scenes look at journalism during an eventful pe

"Through the Looking Glass is wonderful and layered. On one level, it is a delightful insight into the antics of the foreign press corps in an exotic land--a bit like Scoop, but true. On another, it is a historical treasure trove; we learn how Hemingway an

"Enthralling. With a fascinating cast of characters and a dramatic narrative of events, this book provides a new window on to this tumultuous period of Chinese history as well as showing how journalism really works on the ground, for good or ill." --Jonath

Paul French has lived and worked in Shanghai for many years as a founder and the Chief China Representative of the research consultancy Access Asia. He is a widely published analyst, writer and commentator on China. This is his fourth book. His first was One Billion Shoppers--Accessing Asia's Consuming Passions (written with Matthew Crabbe) followed by the well-received North Korea The Paranoid Peninsula. In 2006 he published his biography of the legendary Shanghai adman, journalist and adventurer Carl Crow--A Tough Old China Hand The Life, Times and Adventures of an American in Shanghai, described by the Financial Times as a "captivating narrative".