Rob Finn's winning streak made him one of the most sought-after steeplechase jockeys. But his subsequent collapse in form surprised no one more than himself.
Dick Francis was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt
jockeys. The winner of over 350 races, he was champion jockey in
1953/1954 and rode for HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, most
famously on Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National. On his
retirement from the saddle, he published his autobiography, The
Sport of Queens, before going on to write forty-three bestselling
novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), and the biography
of Lester Piggott.
During his lifetime Dick Francis received many awards, amongst them
the prestigious Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger
for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and three 'best
novel' Edgar Allan Poe awards from The Mystery Writers of America.
In 1996 he was named by them as Grand Master for a lifetime's
achievement. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
of Literature, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday
Honours List of 2000.
Dick Francis died in February 2010, at the age of eighty-nine, but
he remains one of the greatest thriller writers of all time.
As a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his
stride. The same is true of his crime writing
*Daily Mirror*
Dick Francis's fiction has a secret ingredient - his inimitable
knack of grabbing the reader's attention on page one and holding it
tight until the very end
*Sunday Telegraph*
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