Free Happy Birthday Ecards Biography
Source(google.com.pk)It was in 1956 that Dick Francis famously rode one of the Queen Mother's horses, Devon Loch, in the Grand National Steeplechase, but suffered a shattering blow when the horse, then in a commanding lead, collapsed forty yards from the finish. It was ‘both the high point and low point of my career as a jockey,’ Francis says. He decided to retire as a jockey and to embark on what would become a highly successful career as a writer.
Born to ride
Richard Stanley Francis was born in Lawrenny, South Wales, in 1920. From an early age, he and his brother Doug rode on donkeys, horses and ponies at their grandparents’ farm, and Dick Francis says he cannot remember a time when he didn’t dream of becoming a jockey. The boys’ father had been a steeplechase jockey before the First World War and had since become a successful horse dealer. As a teenager, Dick Francis spent his time breaking in and teaching horses to be ridden. He also rode in the show ring at all the major UK horse shows, where he won many ‘best boy rider’ awards.
For king and country
The outbreak of the Second World War saw the end of the budding young horseman’s aspirations and in 1940 Dick Francis joined the RAF. Initially stationed in North Africa, he then undertook pilot training in Spitfires and piloted Lancaster bombers until the war ended. He is pictured (right) at one of the annual Battle of Britain Memorial Flight days.
A national celebrity
Following the war, Dick Francis soon became a celebrity in the world of British National Hunt racing. He won more than 350 races, becoming Champion Jockey in both 1953 and 1954. He was retained as jockey to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother for four years, from 1953 to 1957. He is seen here with one of his mounts, and (below) jumping ‘the Chair’ on the winning horse, Finnure, wearing No 2, in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham, 1950.
A glittering new career
In 1957, when he was contemplating the end of his days as a jockey following a serious fall, Dick Francis was advised by a literary agent that he should work on his autobiography. That same year, he was invited to write six features for the Sunday Express—he would remain that paper’s racing correspondent for sixteen years. The Sport of Queens was published to warm reviews, and was followed by forty-one chart-topping thrillers, commencing with Dead Cert (1962), the biography of Lester Piggot, and a collection of short stories. Dick Francis would be the first to say that his beloved wife, Mary, who died in 2000—the year in which Francis was awarded a CBE—was an integral part of his success, researching storylines and polishing his words.
Father and son
Felix Francis, the younger of Dick and Mary’s two sons, has also played a vital part in his father’s writing career. He assisted with research for over forty years, and in 1991 he gave up teaching A-Level Physics to manage his father’s affairs. After Mary’s death, which ended a happy marriage of fifty-three years, a heartbroken Dick Francis said that without her his writing days were over. Then, in 2005, on a visit to Virginia, he met sixty-year-old Dagmar Cosby. ‘We had a wonderful weekend, in spite of incessant rain, and, for the first time in sixty years, I fell in love,’ he says. It was the spur he needed to pick up his pen again. Felix did the research for Under Orders (2006) and took on a more significant role in the writing of Dead Heat (2007). Silks is the second father-and-son collaboration and a sure-fire winner from the Francis family stable.
Free Happy Birthday Ecards Funny Vlentines Day Cards Tumblr Day Quotes Pictures Day Poems Day Memes Poems
Free Happy Birthday Ecards Funny Vlentines Day Cards Tumblr Day Quotes Pictures Day Poems Day Memes Poems
Free Happy Birthday Ecards Funny Vlentines Day Cards Tumblr Day Quotes Pictures Day Poems Day Memes Poems
Free Happy Birthday Ecards Funny Vlentines Day Cards Tumblr Day Quotes Pictures Day Poems Day Memes Poems
Free Happy Birthday Ecards Funny Vlentines Day Cards Tumblr Day Quotes Pictures Day Poems Day Memes Poems
Free Happy Birthday Ecards Funny Vlentines Day Cards Tumblr Day Quotes Pictures Day Poems Day Memes Poems
Free Happy Birthday Ecards Funny Vlentines Day Cards Tumblr Day Quotes Pictures Day Poems Day Memes Poems
Free Happy Birthday Ecards Funny Vlentines Day Cards Tumblr Day Quotes Pictures Day Poems Day Memes Poems
Free Happy Birthday Ecards Funny Vlentines Day Cards Tumblr Day Quotes Pictures Day Poems Day Memes Poems
Free Happy Birthday Ecards Funny Vlentines Day Cards Tumblr Day Quotes Pictures Day Poems Day Memes Poems
No comments:
Post a Comment