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Born Richard Stanley Francis on October 31, 1920 in Coedcanlas, Pembroke, Wales. dick francis was just his pseudonym that he had chosen to use because it is more memorable. his father was a jockey and was also employed to manage a stable at a company in berkshire, england. he dropped out of school at fifteen with the intention of becoming a jockey like his father and ended up becoming an instructor in 1938.
At the start of the second world war, young and energetic, he enlisted in the army, where he served as a crewman and later as a pilot in the royal air force. he worked with fighter planes and bombers like the hurricane. most of the air travel in his six years of military service took place on distant continents, mainly Africa. Dick Francis was married to his late wife, Margaret Brenchley, whom he had met in October 1945 at a cousin’s wedding.
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they were married in 1947 despite the objections of relatives on both sides. they were blessed with two sons, merrick and felix in 1953. in most of the interviews, the two revealed that theirs was the proverbial love at first sight, something that the author replicated in some of his characters, as in the novel flying finish , knockdown and the edge. His wife succumbed to a heart attack in 2000 at her home in the Cayman Islands.
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Later in 2006, Dick Francis also began to have health problems, his heart had developed some complications that required him to undergo heart bypass that year. the following year, he lost his right leg due to heart failure. he finally died a natural death on February 14, 2010 at his Caribbean residence leaving behind his two children. Horse Racing Achievements Horse racing was his first passion before he decided to become a writer.
Shortly after leaving the force in 1946, he entered numerous horse races in Great Britain. he won nearly 400 horse races in the British National Hunt races, propelling him to stardom in the world of horse racing. he was champion jockey in the period 1953-1954. His exploits with horse racing did not end on the track; He also worked as first jockey for Vivian Smith, which was considered a great honor in those days.
He even served as a jockey for the royal family of England. It was during his work as a jockey on Queen Elizabeth’s horse, Devon Loch, that he made the biggest mistake of his in his horse racing career during his famous fall in a racing meet. He missed out on winning the Grand National in 1956 when the horse he was riding, Devon Loch, which belonged to the Queen, mysteriously fell just short of the finish line.
This was the lowest moment of his sports career. however, it is not surprising that he suffered many injuries due to this sport from the time he was 12 years old until his adulthood. the loyal queen’s adviser convinced him to stop running in 1957 to prevent him from breaking any more bones over the same thing. His novels also reflected this in his characters, most of whom were injured in accidents while competing.
This was his other passion in life besides horse racing for which he was also famous. the first book he wrote was his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, which was published in 1957 and for which he ghost-wrote. The success of the book landed him a job as a correspondent for the London Sunday Express newspaper, as it proved that he was an authority on event riding. this career spanned over a decade and he did so diligently for the next sixteen years.
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In 1961, his first suspense book was published. it was set in the world of racing, which had become inseparable for him. His vast experience in that lifestyle gave her plenty of content to use in his imaginative stories. Over the next 38 years, Dick Francis wrote more than seventy novels. he went on to write at least two books each year with the exception of 1998 when he wrote a collection of crime-related short stories.
He was a genius at creating characters that were neither too real nor too fictional. most readers of it felt that they could somehow relate to these fictional heroes. he was very careful not to paint them as having supernatural powers and tried to make them as human as possible. the heroes, despite being horse racers, always had another job aside, their lives were not entirely intertwined with horse racing, occasionally the characters could break free of it and pursue other races.
It could be a private investigator, an artist, a driver, a wine merchant or an ex-jockey who is no longer actively involved in racing. Some of his famous works include Under the Frame, Up to the Grip, Odds Against, Whip Hand, Fall from Grace, Under Orders, The Edge, The Rat Race, and Trial, among others. the author was also fascinated by other people’s works which he extensively analyzed in his books. the heroes of his stories were usually cast in the role of narrator to heighten suspense and create dramatic effect.
He also explored social themes like dysfunctional families which he expertly incorporated into his stories to make for engaging reading. Dick Francis wrote his books with the help of his wife Margaret. he acknowledged his wife’s input in his writing once during an interview and said that she was the one who used to research the content of books. Nobody could have guessed this strange turn of events, but this is how the author achieved the literary feats of him.
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