Ричард Фрэнсис: Жокей, писатель и мир скачек.

English jockey and crime writer (1920–2010)

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 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 the turf 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 bookie, 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.

During the Second World War, Francis volunteered, hoping to join the cavalry. Instead, he served in the Royal Air Force, initially as a member of ground crew and later piloting fighter and bomber aircraft, including the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, He received an emergency commission as a pilot officer on 29 July 1944, and was promoted war substantive flying officer on 29 January 1945. Much of his six year service career was spent in Africa. From 1953 to 1957, Francis was jockey to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. His best remembered moment as a jockey came while riding the Queen Mother's horse, Devon Loch, in the 1956 Grand National, when the horse inexplicably fell when close to winning the race. Decades later, Francis considered losing that race his greatest regret and called it "a disaster of massive proportions". Other philanthropists, including Charles C. Fenwick Jr., who rode Ben Nevis to victory in the 1980 Grand National, and Paul Mellon, an American breeder and racing enthusiast, also contributed to saving the race.

Francis wrote more than 40 international best sellers. His first book was his autobiography The Sport of Queens (1957); he was offered the aid of a ghostwriter but rejected the idea. The book's success led to his becoming the racing correspondent for London's Sunday Express newspaper, and he continued in that job for 16 years. He set his first thriller, Dead Cert, published in 1962, in the world of horse racing, establishing a specialized niche for his work. Subsequently, he regularly produced a novel a year for the next 38 years, missing only 1998 (during which he published a short story collection). Although all his books were set against a similar background, his male protagonists held a variety of jobs, including artist (In the Frame and To the Hilt), investigator for the Jockey Club (Slay Ride and The Edge), pilot (Rat Race and Flying Finish), and wine merchant (Proof). All the novels are narrated by the hero, who in the course of the story learns that he is more resourceful, brave, tricky, than he had thought, and usually finds a certain salvation for himself as well as bestowing it on others. Details of other people's occupations fascinated Francis, and he explores the workings of such fields as photography, accountancy, the gemstone trade, and restaurant service on transcontinental trains—but always in the interest of the plot. Dysfunctional families were a subject which he also exploited (Reflex, a baleful grandmother; Hot Money, a multi millionaire father and serial ex husband; Decider, the related co owners of a racecourse). Francis rarely re used his lead characters. Only two heroes were used more than once; injured ex jockey turned one handed private investigator Sid Halley (Odds Against, Whip Hand, Come to Grief, Under Orders, also in Refusal by Felix Francis after his father's death) and Kit Fielding (Break In and Bolt). According to a columnist for the Houston Chronicle, Francis "writes believable fairy tales for adults—ones in which the actors are better than we are but are believable enough to make us wonder if indeed we could not one day manage to emulate them."

His first novel, Dead Cert, was adapted as a film under the same title in 1974. Directed by Tony Richardson, it starred Scott Antony, Judi Dench and Michael Williams. It was adapted again as Favorit (a Soviet made for television movie) in 1976. Francis's protagonist Sid Halley was featured in six TV movies made for the program The Dick Francis Thriller: The Racing Game (1979–1980), starring Mike Gwilym as Halley and Mick Ford as his partner, Chico Barnes. The first of the episodes, Odds Against, used a Francis title; the others were created for the program. Three TV films of 1989 were adaptations of Bloodsport, In the Frame, and Twice Shy, all starring Ian McShane as protagonist David Cleveland, a character used only once by Francis, in the novel Slay Ride. In April 2022, Kudos were announced to have optioned the TV rights for the works of Dick and Felix Francis. The series is tentatively titled The Turf, and will draw plots and characters from across the entirety of Francis' works.

High Stakes was adapted into a text adventure game by Mindscape for MS DOS and Apple II.