Legendary thriller writer Dick Francis, famous for his horse racing-based crime novels, is no more. He breathed his last on Sunday in his home in the Cayman Islands.
The winner of over 350 races, he was champion jockey in 1953/1954 and rode for HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. On his retirement from the sport he published his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write forty-one bestselling novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), and the biography of British Jockey Lester Piggott.
Dick Francis won the prestigious Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger and was the only three-time recipient of the Mystery Writer of America's Edgar Award for Best Novel, winning for Forfeit in 1970, Whip Hand in 1981, and Come to Grief in 1996, the same year he was made a Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement. He was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2000.
Francis's most recent works, including Dead Heat and Silks, were co-authored by his son Felix.
The writer may be dead, but his impeccable creations will remain immortalised in the hearts of millions of his fans. Readers are invited to speak about, share their memories of Dick Francis's favourite books in the message board below.
