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Is Dick Francis there Please?

edited July 2014 in - Reading
Man from Arena: "Is Dick Francis there please?"
Me: "Sorry. He left a while ago."
Man from Arena: "Are you Mrs. Francis? You phoned earlier. My partner asked me to call you."
Me: "No. I, obviously, called the wrong number."
Man from Arena: "Yes. We're publishers." ( They are listed under Second Hand Book Sellers )
Me: "I'm Superman's hamster. Goodbye."
I'd already given up trying to order a Dick Francis novel after the Waterstones assistant said that
'To the Hilt' was out of stock, and no one from the second hand book shop, that he recommended, answered the phone.
The story ended, positively, though. Back at Waterstones the assistant suggested a new title; Norfolk Mystery by Ian Fanfom.
"It's humorous," he added, instinctively, realising that I was on the edge having had a bit of trouble deciding, with my Writers' Group, which book to begin reading, and discussing at the next meeting.

Comments

  • http://www.awesomebooks.com/book/9780718142438/to-the-hilt/?c=3

    it is available here at Awesome books.

    He writes 'thrillers' about Horseracing, which is why I read some of them.
    Not very thrilling and very 'put together' with the seams showing. Heavily edited by Mrs Francis.
  • edited July 2014
    Hi Bill, thanks.
  • Bill, I understood that his later books were done with his son.
  • LizLiz
    edited July 2014
    Why does this lie persist? She did no such thing.

    His books are excellent, if fast-paced thriller-type things are what you like with exactly the same protagonist. The ones as he got very old were written with his son, (who was credited) with the idea of passing on the wotsit, but are less good.

    The ones by Felix Francis alone are terrible.
  • edited July 2014
    LIZ SAID '...Why does this lie persist? She did no such thing.

    His books are excellent, if fast-paced thriller-type things are what you like with exactly the same protagonist. The ones as he got very old were written with his son, (who was credited) with the idea of passing on the wotsit, but are less good.

    The ones by Felix Francis alone are terrible....'

    Oh, well. Horses for courses, I suppose. I thought they were awful, but I'm not usually a 'thriller' reader. As I say I am a racing fan and read a few for that reason. I think one or two of them were radio serials.

    The info about Mrs Francis having a lot of involvement was said by...Dick Francis. Perhaps, then, he was being ultra modest.

    All a matter of taste and opinion
    ;)
  • She edited and did research for him - asked for by him - but she didn't write.
  • I enjoyed all the Dick Francis books that I read. Yes, one knew that violence would appear about halfway through, and that the MC was small but brave and smart, but I thought they were well written.
    He knew his world and had the sense to stick to it.
  • I quite like the Dick Francis books too. The hero is usually the same man slightly disguised but that doesn't worry me any more than the way some authors have dozens of murders in the same quiet village or have the same person accidentally stumble across lots of different crimes.

  • A very, very long time ago - must be 30 years, I wrote him a letter after I'd read my first one, to say how much I'd enjoyed it. Back by almost return of post came a handwritten reply, by a genial, clever and friendly author. Funnily enough in the same hand and fountain pen as the signature. I hate the fact that just because he was a jockey people did not believe he could write.
  • I read that he wrote all his stories by hand and his wife typed them for him. I liked his early work. Whip Hand is my favourite.
  • edited July 2014
    Am now lumbered with four copies of, 'The Norfolk Mystery', by Ian Sansom. ( Fanfom is his telephone name ). Other members of the Botesdale Writers' Group will be sorry, that they didn't agree to read the Odyssey, as I suggested.
    Found To the Hilt, via Bill's link, but after 'a god awful cock up' ( Francis, D.) involving spoons, ordered via internet, I saw myself, on the doorstep, in a horrific scenario accepting the complete works of Englebert Blagofsky, and did not have the nerve to order again.

    Reference;
    Pan, Francis, D.'The Danger', Chapter One, p. 9
  • Heavily edited by Mrs Francis.


    Why does this lie persist? She did no such thing.



    The info about Mrs Francis having a lot of involvement was said by...Dick Francis. Perhaps, then, he was being ultra modest.

    She edited and did research for him - asked for by him - but she didn't write.
    But Bill didn't say that Mrs Francis wrote, Liz - he said she edited/had a lot of involvement, which you then agreed with.



  • It was a long long time ago, but in an interview [tv] he said that his wife corrected his grammar, punctuation, spelling, and other things. I believe she was a reader for a publisher.
    Unless my memory is playing tricks, of course, but I see no reason why I should have remembered this. I never thought the subject would ever arise in my lifetime! I only watched the interview because I am interested in all things and people related to Horse Racing.
    All writing is contrived. Thrillers are plot driven and it struck me at the time that the contrivances to facilitate the plot were too obviously contrived. The cutting and pasting seemed evident to me, but I suppose that is the nature of thrillers. I must read some more. I am quite willing to be proved wrong. Perhaps I read the wrong ones. One I remember was about a journey across Canada in a train.

    I wish I had written them! He has achieved more than I have or will.

    Energy apart, and notwithstanding the lack of a professional publisher’s reader, I couldn’t write them now because I see the ‘mechanics’ of writing too clearly for my own good. It puts me off writing!

    There is not a lot of murders in the villages of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire [Midsomer Murders], or dastardly deeds in Horse Racing; so the plots are bound to be strained. Good to watch but I cant read them.
  • Found To the Hilt, via Bill's link, but after 'a god awful cock up' ( Francis, D.) involving spoons, ordered via internet, I saw myself, on the doorstep, in a horrific scenario accepting the complete works of Englebert Blagofsky, and did not have the nerve to order again. - said Patricia.

    Patricia - bite the bullet and try again. If I can do it so can you!


    :-$
  • edited July 2014
    Hi Lizy! Hope you're having lots of success. Linne Matthews has promised to publish a feature of mine in the September issue of Discover Your History Mag., and Lucy Roper has accepted one for the October issue of Dolls House and Miniature Scene Mag.
  • Well done Patricia.
  • I have never read any DF because I am not into horse racing.
  • I wasn't either, Stan - but I simply love his books. And sorry, Bill, i presumed you meant she wrote them rather than edited - 'edited heavily' seemed to suggest she did the writing rather than the corrections of punctuation etc, which when they were written would have been done by an editor anyway.

    i like his 'one' protagonist because he is so upright and like my dad was... and how i would wish to be were I a man. Plus I like the excitement of the last bit where the protagonist is in danger of losing his one remaining arm etc, but manages to get free using only his wit, a rubber band and an elastoplast.

    I also love Donna Leon, and lots of men's action books.
  • I don't bl***y believe this!
    I was trawling through my somewhat packed bookshelves, wondering what I could get rid of, and there was one Dick Francis.
    Guess which one? "To the Hilt".

    Patricia - if you still want it I'll stick it in the post this week.


  • Hey Lizy, what a kind offer. Thank you, but I ordered a few copies from Churchgate Books, Bury S. Edmunds this very day! The Norfolk Mystery is going back to Waterstones, and, hopefully, will be exchanged for French Country Cooking by Elizabeth David.
  • That's a change of genre and no mistake!
  • Diversify and prosper (hopefully).
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