DICK FRANCIS

Dick Francis (Richard Stanley Francis CBE FRSL) was a British crime writer, and former steeplechase jockey, whose novels center 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. Francis retired from the sport and became a journalist and novelist in the 1950s. All his novels deal with crime in the horse-racing world, and more than forty of these novels became international best-sellers. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 89.