Dick Francis

Richard Stanley Francis

After wartime service in the RAF, Francis became a full-time jump-jockey, winning over 350 races and becoming champion jockey of the British National Hunt. He came to further prominence in 1956 as jockey to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, riding her horse Devon Loch which fell when close to winning the Grand National. Francis retired from the turf and became a journalist and novelist.

Many of his novels deal with crime in the horse-racing world, with some of the criminals being outwardly respectable figures. The stories are narrated by the main character, often a jockey, but sometimes a trainer, an owner, a bookie, or someone in a different profession, peripherally linked to racing. This person always faces great obstacles, often including physical injury. More than forty of these novels became international best-sellers.

Personal life

Francis was born in Coedcanlas, Pembrokeshire, Wales.^[2] Some sources report his birthplace as the inland town of Lawrenny, but at least two of his obituaries stated his birthplace as the coastal town of Tenby.^[3][4] His autobiography says that he was born at his maternal grandparents' farm at Coedcanlas on the estuary of the River Cleddau,^[5] roughly a mile north-west of Lawrenny. His mother had likely returned to her parents' home to give birth, as was the custom. He was the son of a jockey and stable manager^[6] and his wife. Francis grew up in Maidenhead in Berkshire, England.^[7] He left school at 15 without any qualifications,^[8] intending to become a jockey; by the time he was 18, in 1938, he also was training horses.^[9]

In October 1945, he met

During the Second World War, Francis volunteered, hoping to join the cavalry. Instead, he served in the Royal Air Force, initially as a member of ground crew and later piloting fighter and bomber aircraft, including the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters,^[8] and the Wellington and Lancaster bombers.^[18] He received an emergency commission as a pilot officer on 29 July 1944,^[19] and was promoted war-substantive flying officer on 29 January 1945.^[20] Much of his six-year service career was spent in Africa.^[2]

Horse racing career

After leaving the RAF in 1946, Francis became a highly successful jockey, reaching celebrity status in the world of British National Hunt racing.^[6] He won over 350 races, becoming champion jockey in the 1953–54 season.^[6]

Shortly after becoming a professional, he was offered the prestige job of first jockey to Vivian Smith, Lord Bicester.^[21][22]

From 1953 to 1957, Francis was jockey to

Francis suffered racing injuries, being first hospitalized from riding at the age of 12 when a pony fell on him and broke his jaw and nose.[21] He drew from this career resulting in broken bones and damaged organs for his novels, in which his characters suffer the same. In 1957, after Francis suffered another serious fall, the Queen Mother's adviser, Lord Abergavenny, advised him that she wanted him to retire from racing for her.

Contributions to racing

In 1983, the Grand National at Aintree Racecourse in England "stood at the brink of extinction," according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. News reporter Don Clippinger wrote, "Britain's

Francis rarely re-used his lead characters. Only two heroes were used more than once; injured ex-jockey turned one-handed private investigator Sid Halley (Odds Against, Whip Hand, Come to Grief, Under Orders, also in Refusal by Felix Francis after his father's death) and Kit Fielding (Break In and Bolt).

According to a columnist for the Houston Chronicle, Francis "writes believable fairy tales for adults—ones in which the actors are better than we are but are believable enough to make us wonder if indeed we could not one day manage to emulate them."^[28]

Writing routine

Francis described a typical year of research and writing to an interviewer in 1989:

In January, he sits down to write, staring down the barrel of a deadline. "My publisher comes over in mid-May to collect the manuscript," he says, "and it's got to be done."
The book's publication takes place in England in September. American publication in past years has been in February, although his next book, Straight, is set to be published in November. Once the manuscript is out of his hands, he takes the summer off, while percolating the plot of his next book. Research on the next book begins in late summer and continues through the autumn, while he's gearing up for his promotional tour for the just-published book. Come January, he sits down to write again.
He doesn't like book tours. He is not one for revelations, major life changes, and intimacies with strange interviewers, and he says he gets tired of answering the same questions again and again.
He shuns the lecture circuit. He'd prefer to let his novels and his sales volume speak for themselves... And though he doesn't love the act of writing [and] could easily retire, he finds himself planning his new book as each summer ends.
He says, "Each one, you think to yourself, 'This is the last one,' but then, by September, you're starting again. If you've got money, and you're just having fun, people think you're a useless character."
Or, as independently wealthy Tor Kelsey says in The Edge, explaining why he works for a minuscule salary: "I work... because I like it, I'm not all that bad at what I do, really, and it's useful, and I'm not terribly good at twiddling my thumbs."^[29]

Collaboration

Francis collaborated extensively in his fiction with his wife, Mary, until her death. Learning this was a surprise to some readers and reviewers.^[30][31] He credited her with being a great researcher for the novels. In 1981, Don Clippinger interviewed the Francises for The Philadelphia Inquirer and wrote,

"When Dick Francis sits down each January to begin writing another of his popular mystery-adventure novels, it is almost a certain bet that his wife, Mary, has developed a new avocation... For instance, in Rat Race, [the protagonist] operated an air-taxi service that specialized in carrying jockeys, trainers and owners to distant race courses. Before that book came out in 1970, Mrs. Francis obtained a pilot's license and was operating an air-taxi service of her own. Francis' newest novel, Reflex, is built around photography, and sure enough, Mary Francis has become accomplished behind the camera and in the darkroom... And, in their condominium, they have set up the subject of his 20th novel [Twice Shy] – a computer. While he is touring the country, she is working on new computer programs."^[32]

According to journalist Mary Amoroso, "Mary does much of the research: She went so far as to learn to fly a plane for Flying Finish. She also edits his manuscripts and serves as a sounding board for plot line and character development. Says Francis, 'At least the research keeps her from going out shopping.'"^[29] Francis told interviewers Jean Swanson and Dean James,

Mary and I worked as a team. ... I have often said that I would have been happy to have both our names on the cover. Mary's family always called me Richard due to having another Dick in the family. I am Richard, Mary was Mary, and Dick Francis was the two of us together.^[2]

Francis' older son, Merrick, was a racehorse trainer and later ran his own horse transport business, which inspired the novel Driving Force.

Francis's manager (and co-author of his later books) was his son Felix, who left his post as teacher of A-Level Physics at Bloxham School in Oxfordshire in order to work for his father. Felix was the inspiration behind a leading character, a marksman and physics teacher, in the novel Twice Shy. Father and son collaborated on four novels. Since his father's death, Felix has carried on to publish novels with his father's name in the title, including a return for Sid Halley (Dick Francis's Refusal, 2013).

Honours

Francis is the only three-time recipient of the

Amoroso wrote in 1989, "And yet he has a keen sense of the evanescence of literary endeavors. 'Whole months of work can be gone in four hours,' he says ruefully. 'People say they can't put my books down, and so they read them in one sitting of four hours.' Francis has been long accustomed to celebrity as a British sports star, but today he is a worldwide phenomenon, having been published in 22 languages. In Australia, he is recognized in restaurants, from his book-jacket picture. He and Mary will see people reading the novels on planes and trains."[29]

Francis was elected in 1999 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.^[34]

Adaptations

Film and television

His first novel, Dead Cert, was adapted as a film

Francis's protagonist Sid Halley was featured in six TV movies made for the program The Dick Francis Thriller: The Racing Game (1979–1980), starring Mike Gwilym as Halley and Mick Ford as his partner, Chico Barnes. The first of the episodes, Odds Against, used a Francis title; the others were created for the program.

Three TV films of 1989 were adaptations of Bloodsport, In the Frame, and Twice Shy, all starring Ian McShane as protagonist David Cleveland, a character used only once by Francis, in the novel Slay-Ride.

In April 2022, Kudos were announced to have optioned the TV rights for the works of Dick and Felix Francis. The series is tentatively titled The Turf, and will draw plots and characters from across the entirety of Francis' works.^[37]

BBC Radio

• Bonecrack, starring Francis Matthews as Neil Griffon and Caroline Blakiston as Maggie Lake
• Enquiry, starring Tony Osoba, Robert Lang and Bill Nighy
• Proof starring Nigel Havers as Tony Beach
• Patricia Gallimore and Terry Molloy
• Rat Race, starring Hywel Bennett as Matt Shore and Helena Breck as Nancy
• Bolt, starring Eric Allan as Kit Fielding and Siân Phillips as Princess Casilia
• Blood Sport, starring John Carson, Nigel Lambert and Cherie Lunghi ^[38] [39]

Further reading

• "Obituary: Dick Francis". BBC News.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Dick Francis.

• Francis, Dick (2001). "Audio interview: Dick Francis". Eye on Books (Interview). Interviewed by Bill Thompson. Archived from the original on 20 February 2006. Discussing the end of his writing.
• Dick Francis at
  IMDb