Catching up my e-mail today and reading through all the journal updates I get, and once again, I've missed the news of the death of an author - Dick Francis. You probably heard about it on the 14th of February when he died. Mr. Francis was 89 years old and living in the Caymen islands at the time of his death.
I hadn't realized that Mr. Francis was a jockey in Britain after World War II. He won 350 races during his nine-year career and was Champion Jockey of the 1953-54 season. He was retained as the Queen Mother's jockey for the 1956 Grand National at Aintree, one of steeplechasing's top races. No wonder he could write about the racetrack with such authentic smells, sounds and sights.
Mr. Francis retired from racing at the age of 37 and then went on to write for the London's Sunday Express as the expert racing correspondent for 16 years. Inspired by the success of his autobiography, he tried his hand at writing a crime mystery about a jockey who is killed in the middle of a race. "Dead Cert" came out in 1962 and since then Mr. Francis wrote a book a year. He came up with plots by going to the track and keeping his "eyes and ears open".
His latest books have been co-authored with his son, Felix. Their latest book was "Even Money" and the next "Crossfire" is due out later this year. His website can be found at http://www.dickfrancis.com/
Susan
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