Dick Francis
British steeplechase jockey turned crime writer, known for horse-racing thrillers.
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Richard Stanley Francis (31 October 1920 – 14 February 2010) was a British steeplechase jockey and crime writer whose novels centre on horse racing in England. After serving in the Second World War with the Royal Air Force, where he piloted fighter and bomber aircraft including Spitfires and Lancasters, Francis became a full-time jump-jockey. He won over 350 races and was champion jockey of the British National Hunt in the 1953–54 season.
From 1953 to 1957, he served as jockey to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. His most famous moment came in the 1956 Grand National when he rode her horse Devon Loch, which fell inexplicably while close to winning; Francis later called this loss his greatest regret. He retired from racing in 1957 after another serious fall, on the advice of the Queen Mother’s adviser.
Francis then became a journalist and novelist. His first book was his autobiography The Sport of Queens (1957), which he wrote without a ghostwriter. Its success led to a sixteen-year role as racing correspondent for the Sunday Express.
He published his first thriller, Dead Cert, in 1962, establishing a specialized niche in the horse-racing world. Over the next 38 years, he produced a novel annually, missing only 1998. His stories are narrated by a main character—often a jockey, but sometimes a trainer, owner, bookmaker, or someone in a different profession peripherally linked to racing—who always faces great obstacles, including physical injury.
The criminals in these novels are often outwardly respectable figures. More than forty of his novels became international best-sellers. In 1983, Francis helped lead a worldwide campaign with Lord Derby to raise $14 million to save the Grand National at Aintree Racecourse from extinction.
Lore & Background
After wartime service in the RAF, Francis became a full-time jump-jockey, winning over 350 races and becoming champion jockey of the British National Hunt. He 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. Francis retired from horseracing and became a journalist and novelist. Many of his novels deal with crime in the horse-racing world, with some of the criminals being outwardly respectable figures.
The stories are narrated by the main character, often a jockey, but sometimes a trainer, an owner, a bookmaker or someone in a different profession, peripherally linked to racing. This person always faces great obstacles, often including physical injury. More than forty of these novels became international best-sellers.
The Jockey's Glory and the Race That Broke Him
Richard Stanley Francis entered the world of British steeplechase riding with the raw determination of a working-class boy from Pembrokeshire, the son of a jockey and stable manager. After six years of RAF service—piloting Spitfires, Hurricanes, Wellingtons, and Lancasters, much of it spent in Africa—he returned to the saddle in 1946 and quickly established himself among the era's most formidable jump-jockeys. His tally surpassed three hundred and fifty race victories, and the 1953–54 season crowned him champion of the British National Hunt. Yet the moment that defined him forever came at Aintree in 1956, when he rode the Queen Mother's Devon Loch to what appeared to be certain Grand National victory before the horse inexplicably collapsed near the finish.
Decades later Francis still called it a disaster of massive proportions. His career was punctuated by broken bones and damaged organs, and after a particularly serious fall in 1957, Lord Abergavenny delivered the Queen Mother's wish that he retire. The injuries he accumulated would later fuel the physical suffering of his fictional heroes.
The Prolific Novelist of the Turf
Francis's transition from saddle to typewriter was neither sudden nor accidental. His 1957 autobiography, The Sport of Queens, written without the ghostwriter he was offered, became a bestseller and secured him a sixteen-year stint as racing correspondent for London's Sunday Express. That journalistic immersion in the racing world gave him the raw material for Dead Cert, published in 1962, which planted his flag in a niche no one else occupied: crime thrillers set squarely within the English horse-racing establishment. From that point forward he delivered a novel roughly every year for thirty-eight consecutive years, the sole exception being 1998, when a short-story collection took its place.
More than forty of these books became international bestsellers. What distinguished them was the variety of his first-person narrators—artists, Jockey Club investigators, pilots, a film director, a wine merchant—each peripherally linked to racing and each forced to confront obstacles that often included serious physical injury. The villains, meanwhile, were frequently outwardly respectable figures whose respectability masked criminal intent.
A Life Shared, and a Life Lost
Francis met Mary Margaret Brenchley at a cousin's wedding in October 1945, and by his own account in most interviews, the attraction was immediate and mutual. Their families were not entirely pleased with the engagement, but the couple married in London in June 1947. Mary was a woman of formidable intellect and range: she held a degree in English and French from London University, had worked as an assistant stage manager and a publisher's reader, and had also trained as a pilot. Her experience in the air would later seep into several of Francis's novels, including Flying Finish, Rat Race, and Second Wind.
The couple had two sons, one of them Felix, born in 1953. Mary contracted polio while pregnant with their first child. They spent nearly three decades in Blewbury, Berkshire, then moved to Florida in the 1980s and to the Cayman Islands in 1992. Mary died of a heart attack in 2000.
Saving the Grand National and a Lasting Legacy
By 1983 the Grand National at Aintree was, in the words of The Philadelphia Inquirer, standing at the brink of extinction. The British Jockey Club had negotiated a fourteen-million-dollar deal to purchase the land and preserve the race permanently, but the money simply did not exist. Two prominent figures from the racing world were selected to lead a worldwide fundraising campaign: Lord Derby and the novelist Dick Francis. Their efforts, bolstered by contributions from other philanthropists including American breeder Paul Mellon and Grand National winner Charles C. Fenwick Jr., ultimately saved the event.
Francis's broader legacy extends well beyond that single act of rescue. Through more than forty bestsellers he made the inner machinery of English horse racing—its politics, its injuries, its moral compromises—accessible to a global audience. His characters, whether jockeys, trainers, bookmakers, or outsiders drawn into the orbit of the sport, carried the weight of his own broken bones and damaged organs. He proved that a man who left school at fifteen with no qualifications could reshape both a sport's public image and the landscape of British crime fiction.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened with Devon Loch at the 1956 Grand National?
Francis was riding Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's horse Devon Loch when, with the winner in sight, the horse stumbled and fell, ending what had been a near-certain victory. The incident remains one of the most talked-about moments in Grand National history and later inspired elements of his fiction.
How successful was Dick Francis as a jockey before he turned to writing?
After his RAF service in World War II, Francis rode as a full-time jump-jockey and accumulated more than 350 winners, earning the title of champion jockey of the British National Hunt. He also became widely known as the Queen Mother's regular rider before retiring from the saddle.
When and where did Dick Francis die?
He passed away on 14 February 2010 in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, at the age of 89. His death closed the chapter on a career that spanned both the racing track and the best-seller lists.
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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Dick Francis (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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