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Equine Thrillers by Dick Francis
By Nick Radovanović
I was introduced to Dick Francis' work by my Japanese boss, who was a fan of the Japanese translations. Dick Francis is a British retired champion jockey who turned to writing when, according to him, the carpet in the sitting room became threadbare. Surprisingly, the horse-rider turned to be an exceptional writer, and all his books - he's quite prolific, churning out a novel a year - are very good. Not surprisingly, horses play a major role in all his plots. The books are all written in the first person, and the protagonist is usually an intelligent, well-off young man. In one book, it was an arbitrageur - Dick Francis introduced me to that word. In another, the inventor of best-selling toys. The protagonist gets into some trouble with villains, who are often corrupting the world of racing in one way or another, and somehow manages to get himself out of the trouble. The best part of Dick Francis' novels is that they are all realistic. What defines the quality of a work of fiction, in my opinion, is how well it is able to hold up the illusion. A lot of the thrillers nowadays involving terrorists and hi-tech equipment reqire the reader to be about eleven years old in order to maintain a degree of believability. Not so with Dick Francis. His books are set in the English countryisde, and the way the stories are told makes you think it all happened to Dick himself. Dick Francis does English country racing like van Gogh does Provence. I credit Dick Francis with familiarizing me with a world I would never have known before. If I close my eyes I can almost smell the dewy grass as the horses are put through their morning exercises by their trainers, see the mist which obscures the cobbled streets, feel the excitement and grandeur of the races at Newmarket or Cheltenham. I'm not sure which one of his Novels is my favorite; there are so many and having read most of them more than a decade ago, I can't remember which title goes with which plot. But what I can tell you with certainty is that there isn't a single one I've regretted picking up, even if it ultimately caused me to appear at board-room meetings red-eyed and unprepared. |
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Thank you for sharing this intel, Nick.
I've always had a love for horses, and like you, I've come to enjoy the writings of Dick Frances. I have 28 of his books in my collection.
Best to you.
Frederick
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This intel was contributed by nick
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May, 2012
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