The first book Dick Francis wrote - his pre-war childhood in the stables run by his rather, his war experience in the RAF and his post war steeplechasing career in particular. All though the names are now dated, this is an in depth description of National Hunt racing, culminating in the famous fall by Devon Loch fifty yards from the end of the Grand National.
A final chapter added later cruises over his journalism career, his first thriller and the next thirty years of his writing career until he and his wife relocate to Florida in 1986.

I probably wouldn’t have picked this up myself but it was loaned to me and I’ve always enjoyed the mystery stories Francis has written. I was more interested in Francis as a person and author than I was with him as a racer, and I skimmed some of the parts about the races he was in. I’m glad that he added the chapter at the end where he talked about the mysteries. I was glad to get the chance to find out more about him.

Just fabulous and so interesting.

Super dry but a favorite of my moms :) very sentimental for me.

The middle chapters are skippable - the courses and horses etc, too many boring details. The story shines in his early and later life.

I was so excited when I realized that Dick Francis had an autobiography. The book was not exactly what I expected, but when I realized it was published in 1957 it made more sense. He talks about his childhood and his lifelong association with horses and then his transition into being a Steeplechase jockey. It amused me that he would describe the horses and the races and the racetracks so thoroughly, I skipped some of that. But the rest of it was very interesting to me. In an afterward he mentions having to retire because he was getting older and not healing as well from his racing falls, and in only a paragraph says that he started writing for a newspaper and that eventually he tried to write a book. When this afterward was published he had only written a couple of books. It made me wonder how he would have written his autobiography towards the end of his life when he was such a best-selling author.

I learned a lot about racing and wish I had had some of that information before reading all those thrillers. I did start skimming towards the end when he described various courses.

Jockey and author, Dick Francis' autobiography is most memorable for speculating as to why Devon Loch, five lengths ahead, in the final stretch of the 1956 Grand national suddenly jumped and collapsed beneath the author.

Before Dick Francis was one of the most popular equine authors of all time, he was a jockey. This story takes you through his early life and how he not only ended up race riding but also serving in the military and turning into a writer. I am a huge fan of Francis and thought I knew a lot about him but even so, I learned a lot about him in this story.

Too much detail on some sections, not enough in others. I'm so glad to have read this.

Most of this autobiography is interesting to read even though one has very little first-hand knowledge on horses, riding, or racing. I have to admire how he begins the book. Already there one could see that he would (or his wife would) write excellent mystery novels!

His autobiography – interesting showing how the 2nd WW affected him I had forgotten he was a pilot too

This is an autobiography. Doesn't read as well as his fiction but it is interesting. What I read lingers in my thoughts. One such story is that horses if handled properly likes to race. One such horse lost his rider on the first jump. This horse continued the race soaring over all the subsequent jumps until he came in first.