Novelist · The Cotswolds

Mark French

Author of the Tom Johnstone series: five novels about a real Georgian smuggler who spent his life on the wrong side of the law, and in the pay of the Crown.

Discover the series Read the opening
The Tom Johnstone Series · I
The Making of a Smuggler
Mark French

Five books, 1782 to 1830

All five books →
I
The Making of a Smuggler
Lymington, 1782 to 1798
II
The Double Game
Flushing to Southwold, 1799 to 1804
III
The Emperor's Pilot
Boulogne to Walcheren, 1804 to 1809
IV
The Fox's Den
The Solent, 1809 to 1812
V
The Last Job
St Helena to Paris, 1820 to 1830

“History remembers its heroes loudly. Thomas Johnstone was never one of them.”

From the preface to The Making of a Smuggler

Family history

The French clan

This site began as a home for the French family tree, the history of the surname, its connected families and its Norfolk origins. Those pages are being moved across to the new site and will be back here soon.

Get in touch

For news of new releases, questions about the books, or the family history.

mark@frenchclan.co.uk