Millions of readers and fans are mourning the death of Dick Francis, world famous author and champion jump jockey. He died at his home in the Cayman Islands on February 15th, 2010 at the age of 89.
Dick Francis has written a total of 44 books since his first novel, Dead Cert, was published in 1962. He has won numerous awards for his racetrack-based thrillers, including the Edgar Allen Poe Grand Master Award in 1996. His novels involved villainy and intrigue in the horseracing world, and he told a terrific story – and the good guy always won in the end.
Hoping to join the cavalry at the beginning of World War II, Francis instead became an RAF bomber pilot, and after the war, in 1948 he began a nine-year stretch as a jockey, winning 345 out of the 2,305 races ridden between 1948 and 1957.
In 1947 he married Mary Brenchley, who was a great help in his writing career from the very beginning. She even learned to fly when he was writing Flying Finish in 1966, and joined Dick and his friend Lester Piggott in starting an air taxi business a little later. The marriage thrived for 53 years; Mary died in 2000.
Dick Francis was a friend of royalty, and rode many horses for the Queen Mother. The collapse of her horse, Devon Loch, in the home stretch of the Grand National in 1956 remained a mystery to him and to the horse-racing world. In fact he said that event is what led to his hugely successful career as an author.
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