Dick Francis

"Some are born weird, some achieve it, others have weirdness thrust upon them."

Dick Francis, in full Richard Stanley Francis, British jockey and mystery writer known for his realistic plots centred on the sport of horse racing.

The son of a jockey, Francis took up steeplechase riding in 1946, turning professional in 1948. In 1957 he had an accident that cut short his riding career. That same year he published The Sport of Queens: The Autobiography of Dick Francis, and until 1973 he was a racing correspondent for London’s Sunday Express.