His first book was his autobiography, The Sport of Queens (1957), which led to him becoming the racing correspondent for the London Sunday Express, a position he held for 16 years. In 1962, he published his first thriller, Dead Cert, set in the world of racing. 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 background of horseracing, his heroes held a variety of jobs from artist (To the Hilt) to private investigator (Odds Against). Francis is the only three-time recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best Novel, winning for Forfeit in 1970, Whip Hand in 1981, and Come to Grief in 1996. Also in 1976 he was given the Grand Master Award, the highest honor bestowed by the MWA.
The 1999 unauthorised biography, Dick Francis: A Racing Life, suggested that his books had in fact been written by Francis' wife, Mary. Whether true or not, by all accounts Mary did much of the research and editing of Francis' later novels and stories, and often worked collaboratively with her husband on each book's actual composition. After Mary's death in the year 2000, Francis wrote no new works until Under Orders (a racing term for when the horses are at the start and subject to the starter's orders), released in September 26, 2006. Dick Francis' manager (and research assistant on the new book) is his son Felix, who left his well-paid post as a teacher at a UK private school (Bloxham School in Oxfordshire) in order to work for his father and who was the inspiration behind a leading character in the novel Twice Shy. His other son, Merrick, formerly a racehorse trainer, later ran his own horse transport business, thus inspiring the novel Driving Force.
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