26 Facts About Dick Francis

Richard Stanley Francis was a British steeplechase jockey and crime writer whose novels centre on horse racing in England.

Dick Francis 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.

Dick Francis retired from the turf and became a journalist and novelist.

Dick Francis's autobiography says that he was born at his maternal grandparents' farm at Coedcanlas on the estuary of the River Cleddau, roughly a mile north-west of Lawrenny.

Dick Francis's mother had likely returned to her parents' home to give birth, as was the custom.

Dick Francis was the son of a jockey and stable manager and his wife.

Dick Francis left school at 15 without any qualifications, intending to become a jockey; by the time he was 18, in 1938, he was training horses.

Dick Francis had graduated with a degree in English and French from London University at the age of 19, was an assistant stage manager, and later worked as a publisher's reader.

Dick Francis became a pilot, and her experience of flying contributed to many novels, including Flying Finish, Rat Race, and Second Wind.

Dick Francis contracted polio while pregnant with their first child.

Dick Francis died of natural causes on 14 February 2010 at his Caribbean home in Grand Cayman, survived by both sons.

Dick Francis received an emergency commission as a pilot officer on 29 July 1944, and was promoted war-substantive flying officer on 29 January 1945.

Dick Francis's best remembered 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.

Dick 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.

Dick Francis drew from this career resulting in broken bones and damaged organs for his novels, in which his characters suffer the same.

Dick Francis set his first thriller, Dead Cert, published in 1962, in the world of horse racing, establishing a specialized niche for his work.

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

Dick Francis 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.

Dick Francis collaborated extensively in his fiction with his wife, Mary, until her death.

Dick Francis credited her with being a great researcher for the novels.

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

Dick Francis's manager 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.

Dick 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.

Dick Francis was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1983 and promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000.

Dick Francis was inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 1966.

Dick Francis was elected in 1999 a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.