I've been reading a lot of Dick Francis novels, and rating them consistently as fours. I give this a five because it was so interesting to see the person behind the books. Seems like he was a great guy!

Now, you would think that Dick Francis would write a lively autobiography about his days as a jump jockey (steeplechase jockey.) After all, he writes such lively mysteries. But you would think wrong. This is a very dull book and very disappointing. Francis gives very little detail in just the places you would want some detail. He only casually notes various horses and rides with almost maddeningly casual mention. I wanted to hear more about these horses, 'cause for me the more horses, the better.



The only thing he goes into detail on is his disastrous and legendary ride in the 1956 Grand National on the Queen Mother's horse, Devon Loch.

Things did not go so well. As Francis' child so aptly put it to his father. "I'm Devon Loch. Fall down. Go bump."



Just why Devon Loch did his bellyflop remains a mystery. However, Francis' theory makes the most sense to me.

After this, Francis pretty much had no choice but to retire from the sport he loved. This lead him into writing. That career is not gone into here.

This is one of the hundreds of books I've lost or sold or gave away over the years and I have not missed it for one second.

Parts of this book were interesting, parts too technical so I skipped those. Overall I'm glad I read it.

An interesting read for folks who like his mysteries and want to know about the man behind them. The man loved being a jockey.

After devouring all of his books, I thought it time to read the autobiography of Dick Francis. It was very interesting to read about the life of a steeplechase jockey. Falling off a horse every 15 rides is not very good odds. Also by the time a jockey is 40, his body no longer bounces back as quickly after an injury. I enjoyed reading about his transition from jockey to author. In his career as a jockey Francis is best known for 'almost' winning the Grand National. After reading his account of the race I watched the video on the Internet. What a mystery, and only Devon Loch knows what really happened.

Though Dick Francis is one of my favourite writers,I was left a bit disappointed by his autobiography.

Dick Francis was a former jockey who went on to become a champion thriller writer.In between,he was a journalist and before that,he was a combat pilot during World War II.

In 1956,Dick Francis was riding highy fancied Devon Loch at the Grand National.The horse belonged to the Queen Mother,and was leading before falling inexplicably,shortly before the end.There is a youtube video showing the actual footage.

That moment of heartbreak remained with Francis,and similar incidents are often used in his racing thrillers.

Francis talks about his writing career,though it is not a particularly enlightening account of how he wrote his thrillers.As he puts it,"the process of writing fiction is a mystery."

There is also an account of his days as a pilot during World War II,which is fairly interesting.

Most of the book,however,is about his days as a jockey and a rather mechanical description of the races he rode.It lacks excitement and is a rather half-hearted effort.

I expected more from this book,it didn't quite meet my expectations.

Dick Francis... those who know him and love him are aware that he likes to write crime novels with horse racing as a theme.

Did you know he was a steeplechase jockey too?

Dick was born in the United Kingdom in 1920 and from the beginning Horses were in his blood.

This book, The Sport of Queens, is about his life journey as a jockey.

I have a good friend who is a big Dick Francis fan, so I promised to read at least one of his suspense novels just to see if I might like him too.

My Dick Francis reading plan took off when I found that he wrote his autobiography.

Great place to start, I thought, and I was right.

Some of the book is full of racing information. Unfortunately, somewhat dull. But there was so much more that made me smile.. like his learning to ride at the age of 5 on a donkey and his experiences coming to America to run in the International Steeplechase. The chapter 'America' describes this last experience and it was entertaining to read an Englishman's view of horse racing in America.. oh so different than he has in England.

So now I have met Dick Francis. My next step is to read one of his many racing crime novels.

Dick Francis is one of my cozy mystery favorites

4 Stars

Sport of Queens is an autobiography by Dick Francis. It makes for an interesting read.
->2023 Reading Challenge.
->Glennie's Collection
Dick Francis novels were a familiar fixture in our household when I was growing up, as both my parents loved his books. He was amongst the first ‘adult’ reads that I explored at the time, and over the years I have read everything he’s written. I remember every time my mother read one of his books, she'd tell me about him and how he'd gone from being an RAF pilot to being the Queen Mother's favourite jockey, before retiring to become a journalist/writer.
Since my mother passed away over a year ago, I have been making my way through her book collection, finally. I decided to make reading her entire collection a part of my reading challenge for the next couple of years (she has a HUGE collection), as well as a way to pay tribute to my mum, who was such a voracious reader..... Reading her collection of books has stirred up a lot of memories, mostly of our shared love of reading. I am forever grateful that she passed on her love of reading to me.

Amazing!