The Badlands

"Youth and freshness were currency in a prostitute's world, age and time the enemy." More than any other facet of life, it is the brothels in Paul French's rendering of a Beijing district populated by foreigners at the end of Republican Era rule that receive the most attention. Descriptions of forced sex work and child prostitution are at best, described with benign terms, and at worst, imbued with a disturbing air of nostalgia. Tracing the early background of two Russian madams named Brana and Rosie, French writes, "Both had been lured by good-looking men in their home towns and taken to London where they were broken in by being repeatedly raped in a filthy lodging house near Waterloo Station."  Brana and Rosie are praised for the "trafficked quarry" that they are, who end up rising up despite their circumstances – as brothel managers. The origins of Saxen the Russian pimp receive less detail, but he is known uniquely to discipline his girls not only with slaps, punches and kicks – but through heroin injections. "It kept them loyal and allowed them to service a dozen or more clients a night, outdoors or indoors, since they didn't feel the cold or the pain and they'd do anything to get the next hit." The book is a follow-up to French's highly-acclaimed "Midnight in Peking," which delves into the circumstances surrounding the grisly murder of a young British girl in 1937. The hardcover limited edition special is a red-ribbon bound volume which includes maps and previously unpublished photographs.