Dick Francis

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Dick Francis
Occupation	Novelist, retired jockey
Nationality	British
Writing period	1957-present
Genres	Crime fiction
Dick Francis.com Official website

Dick Francis CBE (born Richard Stanley Francis on 31 October 1920) is a British horse racing crime writer and retired jockey.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Horse racing career 3 Writing career 4 Books 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early life

He was born in Lawrenny, south Wales, the son of a jockey and stable manager ^[1].

During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force, piloting fighter and bomber aircraft, including the Spitfire.

[edit] Horse racing career

After leaving the RAF in 1946 he became a celebrity in the world of British National Hunt racing.^[1] He won over 350 races, becoming champion jockey in the 1953-54 season.^[1]

From 1953 to 1957 he was jockey to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. In 1957 he was forced to retire from racing as the result of a serious fall. His most famous moment as a jockey came while riding the Queen Mother's horse, Devon Loch, in the 1956 Grand National when the horse inexplicably fell when close to winning the race.

[edit] Writing career

Dick Francis has written 41 international bestsellers and is widely claimed as one of the world's best thriller writers. His first book was his autobiography The Sport of Queens (1957) which led to him becoming the racing correspondent for the London Sunday Express, a position he held for 16 years. In 1962 he published his first thriller Dead Cert set in the world of racing. Subsequently he regularly produced a novel a year for the next 38 years, missing only 1998 (during which he published a short-story collection). Although all his books were set against a background of horse racing, his heroes held a variety of jobs from artist (To the Hilt) to private investigator (Odds Against).

Francis is the only three time recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best Novel, winning for Forfeit in 1970, Whip Hand in 1981, and Come to Grief in 1996. Also in 1976 he was given the Mystery Writer of America Grand Master Award, the highest honour bestowed by the MWA. In 2003 he was honoured by being awarded the Gumshoe Awards' Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award.

Graham Lord's 1999 unauthorized biography Dick Francis: A Racing Life suggested his books had in fact been written by Francis' wife Mary. By all accounts Mary did much of the research and editing of Francis' later novels and stories and often worked collaboratively with her husband on each book's actual composition. After Mary's death in the year 2000 Francis wrote no new works until Under Orders (a racing term for when the horses are at the start and subject to the starter's orders) released on 26 September 2006. His next two books - Dead Heat in 2007 and Silks in 2008 - were co-written by his son Felix.

Dick Francis' manager (and research assistant on the new books) is his son Felix Francis who left his post as teacher of A Level Physics at Bloxham School in Oxfordshire in order to work for his father and who was the inspiration behind a leading character in the novel Twice Shy. His other son Merrick, formerly a racehorse trainer, later ran his own horse transport business, thus inspiring the novel Driving Force.

While not universally true, a typical Francis novel follows the basic premise:

• Stories are told through the eyes of one character in the first person.

• The narrators generally have professional involvement in the racing world - jockey, trainer, or owner.

• The location is often one of the centres of British racing, either Newmarket or Lambourn.

• The narrators goes about their business and then strange deaths or strange scams start to occur which they investigate. Along the way the narrators find themselves a murder target themselves.

• If not already involved they meet a love interest.

• The villains are brought to justice.

[edit] Books

title	year	ISBN of first edition	main character	notes
The Sport of Queens	1957			autobiography
Dead Cert	1962	ISBN 0-330-24621-6	Alan York, amateur jockey
Nerve	1964		Rob Finn, jockey
For Kicks	1965		Daniel Roke, trainer
Odds Against	1965	ISBN 0-330-10597-3	Sid Halley, investigator
Flying Finish	1966		Henry Grey, groom/heir to earldom
Blood Sport	1967		Gene Hawkins, security agent
Forfeit	1968	ISBN 0-425-20191-0	James Tyrone, reporter
Enquiry	1969		Kelly Hughes, jockey
Rat Race	1970		Matt Shore, pilot
Bonecrack	1971		Neil Griffon, accountant, assigned as temporary trainer whilst his father is hospitalised
Smokescreen	1972		Edward Lincoln, movie actor who does his own stunts
Slayride	1973	ISBN 0-671-83271-9	David Cleveland, investigator
Knockdown	1974		Jonah Dereham, bloodstock agent
High Stakes	1975		Steven Scott, toy inventor
In the Frame	1976		Charles Todd, painter
Risk	1977		Roland Britten, accountant
Trial Run	1978		Randall Drew, jockey
Whip Hand	1979	ISBN 0-449-21274-2	Sid Halley, investigator
Reflex	1980		Philip Nore, jockey
Twice Shy	1981		Jonathan Derry, teacher, second part narrated by younger brother William
Banker	1982		Tim Ekaterin, banker
The Danger	1983		Andrew Douglas, security consultant
Proof	1984		Tony Beach, wine merchant
Break In	1985		Kit Fielding, jockey
Bolt	1986		Kit Fielding, jockey
Hot Money	1987		Ian Pembroke, former asst trainer, amateur jockey
The Edge	1988		Tor Kelsey, investigator
Straight	1989		Derek Franklin, jockey
Longshot	1990		John Kendall, writer
Comeback	1991		Peter Darwin, diplomat
Driving Force	1992		Freddie Croft, trucking company owner
Decider	1993		Lee Morris, architect
Wild Horses	1994		Thomas Lyon, movie director
Come to Grief	1995	ISBN 0-330-34777-2	Sid Halley, investigator
To the Hilt	1996		Alexander Kinloch, painter
10 LB. Penalty	1997		Ben Juliard, jockey/politician's son
Field of Thirteen	1998	ISBN 0-515-12609-8		short stories: 1. "Raid at Kingdom Hill" (first appeared in The Times of London, 1975) 2. "Dead on Red" 3. "Song for Mona" 4. "Bright White Star" (first appeared in Cheshire Life, Christmas 1979)**5. "Collision Course" 6. "Nightmare" (first appeared in The Times of London, 13 April 1974) 7. "Carrot for a Chestnut" (first appeared in Sports Illustrated, 1970) 8. "The Gift" (first appeared as "A Day of Wine and Roses" in Sports Illustrated, 1973) 9. "Spring Fever" (first appeared in Women's Own magazine, 1980) 10. "Blind Chance" (first appeared as "Twenty-one Good Men and True" in Verdict of Thirteen: A Detection Club Anthology, 1979) 11. "Corkscrew" 12. "The Day of the Losers" (first appeared in Horse and Hound, February 1977) 13. "Haig's Death"
Second Wind	1999		Perry Smart, meteorologist
Shattered	2000	ISBN 0-399-14660-1	Gerard Logan, glass blower
Under Orders	2006	ISBN 978-0-330-44833-8	Sid Halley, investigator
Dead Heat	2007	ISBN 978-0-399-15476-8	Max Moreton, chef	with Felix Francis
Silks	2008	ISBN 978-0-718-15457-8	Geoffrey Mason, barrister	with Felix Francis
Even Money	2009			with Felix Francis

[edit] See also

• John Francome

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} The Sport of Queens

[edit] External links

• 2001 audio interview by Bill Thompson of Eye on Books, discussing the end of his writing.
• Official Dick Francis Website.
• Dick Francis Reading Group.

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