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After reading all of Dick Francis's books, I found this group of great racing stories... not so great.
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The Dick Francis Treasury of Great Racing Stories
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The master thriller writer and world-renowned champion steeplechase rider has selected these fourteen classics of short fiction to represent the most enthralling of all stories about horse-racing.
Inside, you'll find a stableful of thrills and a few surprises from such famous authors as Arthur Conan Doyle and J.P. Marquand, Beryl Markham and John Galsworthy, Sherwood Anderson and Edgar Wallace. Brimming with color, excitement and atmosphere, here are compelling tales of dreams and treachery, horses and horseplay, Holmes and Watson, love and death, and a full complement of riders, rogues, and the fascinating royalty of the turf.
Inside, you'll find a stableful of thrills and a few surprises from such famous authors as Arthur Conan Doyle and J.P. Marquand, Beryl Markham and John Galsworthy, Sherwood Anderson and Edgar Wallace. Brimming with color, excitement and atmosphere, here are compelling tales of dreams and treachery, horses and horseplay, Holmes and Watson, love and death, and a full complement of riders, rogues, and the fascinating royalty of the turf.
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Genres
short storieshorses
221 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1,1989
This edition
- Format
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221 pages, Mass Market Paperback
- Published
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March 22, 1992 by Fawcett
- ISBN
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9780449220498
- ASIN
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0449220494
- Language
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English
About the author
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Dick Francis, CBE, FRSL (born Richard Stanley Francis) was a popular British horse racing crime writer and retired jockey.
Dick Francis worked on his books with his wife, Mary, before her death. Dick considered his wife to be his co-writer - as he is quoted in the book, "The Dick Francis Companion", released in 2003:
"Mary and I worked as a team. ... I have often said that I would have been happy to have both our names on the cover. Mary's family always called me Richard due to having another Dick in the family. I am Richard, Mary was Mary, and Dick Francis was the two of us together."
Praise for Dick Francis: 'As a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his stride. The same is true of his crime writing' Daily Mirror '
Dick Francis's fiction has a secret ingredient - his inimitable knack of grabbing the reader's attention on page one and holding it tight until the very end' Sunday Telegraph '
Dick Francis was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys. The winner of over 350 races, he was champion jockey in 1953/1954 and rode for HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, most famously on Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National.
On his retirement from the saddle, he published his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write forty-three bestselling novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), and the biography of Lester Piggott.
During his lifetime Dick Francis received many awards, amongst them the prestigious Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and three 'best novel' Edgar Allan Poe awards from The Mystery Writers of America. In 1996 he was named by them as Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2000. Dick Francis died in February 2010, at the age of eighty-nine, but he remains one of the greatest thriller writers of all time.
Series:
* Sid Halley Mystery
* Kit Fielding Mystery
Dick Francis worked on his books with his wife, Mary, before her death. Dick considered his wife to be his co-writer - as he is quoted in the book, "The Dick Francis Companion", released in 2003:
"Mary and I worked as a team. ... I have often said that I would have been happy to have both our names on the cover. Mary's family always called me Richard due to having another Dick in the family. I am Richard, Mary was Mary, and Dick Francis was the two of us together."
Praise for Dick Francis: 'As a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his stride. The same is true of his crime writing' Daily Mirror '
Dick Francis's fiction has a secret ingredient - his inimitable knack of grabbing the reader's attention on page one and holding it tight until the very end' Sunday Telegraph '
Dick Francis was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys. The winner of over 350 races, he was champion jockey in 1953/1954 and rode for HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, most famously on Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National.
On his retirement from the saddle, he published his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write forty-three bestselling novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), and the biography of Lester Piggott.
During his lifetime Dick Francis received many awards, amongst them the prestigious Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and three 'best novel' Edgar Allan Poe awards from The Mystery Writers of America. In 1996 he was named by them as Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2000. Dick Francis died in February 2010, at the age of eighty-nine, but he remains one of the greatest thriller writers of all time.
Series:
* Sid Halley Mystery
* Kit Fielding Mystery
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Dick Francis has compiled a thrilling book of fourteen fictional short stories written by some of the most famous authors in literature to represent the world of horse racing.
Some of them include The Dream by Richard Findlay, I'm a Fool by Sherwood Anderson, Had a Horse by John Galsworthy, The Coop by Edgar Wallace. Of the fourteen stories some of my favorites were Silver Blaze by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Look of Eagles by John Taintor Foote, Carrot for a Chestnut by Dick Francis, and especially, The Splendid Outcast by Beryl Markham, the first licensed female horse trainer in Kenya. Cool! Huh?
As with everything Dick Francis has written I fully enjoyed it and read it cover to cover. I even used a flashlight to continue reading when we had a local power outage lasting some thirty six hours. That's how much I love his books!
Dick Francis was a full-time jump-jockey, winning over 350 races and becoming champion jockey of the British National Hunt. In 1956 Dick was a jockey to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and was riding her horse, Devon Loch, when it fell while close to winning the Grand National. The cause of the fall is still unknown. Afterwards he retired from racing to become full-time novelist.
All his novels deal with crime in the horse-racing world and the stories are written through the eyes of key players, most often a jockey, but sometimes from the viewpoint of a trainer, an owner, a bookie, or someone in a different profession whom is peripherally linked to racing in some way. The protagonist is always facing great obstacles in which he must fight back with great determination and wit to right the wrongs of the villain(s).
Dick wrote forty seven novels of his own in which more than forty of them became international best-sellers. Later, when he was getting up in years, he and his son, Felix Francis, coauthored four more novels together. When Dick passed away in 2010 his son, Felix, continued on with his father's legacy, writing six novels on his own, all of which are equally fantastic as his father's, the most recent being Triple Crown, published in 2016. I'm sure that Dick would be very proud.
As a teen, to say I wasn't fond of reading would be an understatement. One of my favorite things, however, has always been horses.
One summer my mom gave me a mystery novel written by Dick Francis. I'm not sure which one as it was a very long time ago, but from page one I was hooked, I devoured it, cover to cover. From then on I read every single mystery novel Dick Francis published.
He remains my favorite author of all time.
I have a special place in my library at home where I treasure my collection of Dick and Felix Francis's books and I own every single novel that they have ever published, including the very first book written by Dick, Dead Cert, published in 1962.
If you're looking for a thrilling, heart pounding, hair raising ride, I highly recommend a mystery encompassed by the regal Sport of Queens written by Dick Francis.
Some of them include The Dream by Richard Findlay, I'm a Fool by Sherwood Anderson, Had a Horse by John Galsworthy, The Coop by Edgar Wallace. Of the fourteen stories some of my favorites were Silver Blaze by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Look of Eagles by John Taintor Foote, Carrot for a Chestnut by Dick Francis, and especially, The Splendid Outcast by Beryl Markham, the first licensed female horse trainer in Kenya. Cool! Huh?
As with everything Dick Francis has written I fully enjoyed it and read it cover to cover. I even used a flashlight to continue reading when we had a local power outage lasting some thirty six hours. That's how much I love his books!
Dick Francis was a full-time jump-jockey, winning over 350 races and becoming champion jockey of the British National Hunt. In 1956 Dick was a jockey to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and was riding her horse, Devon Loch, when it fell while close to winning the Grand National. The cause of the fall is still unknown. Afterwards he retired from racing to become full-time novelist.
All his novels deal with crime in the horse-racing world and the stories are written through the eyes of key players, most often a jockey, but sometimes from the viewpoint of a trainer, an owner, a bookie, or someone in a different profession whom is peripherally linked to racing in some way. The protagonist is always facing great obstacles in which he must fight back with great determination and wit to right the wrongs of the villain(s).
Dick wrote forty seven novels of his own in which more than forty of them became international best-sellers. Later, when he was getting up in years, he and his son, Felix Francis, coauthored four more novels together. When Dick passed away in 2010 his son, Felix, continued on with his father's legacy, writing six novels on his own, all of which are equally fantastic as his father's, the most recent being Triple Crown, published in 2016. I'm sure that Dick would be very proud.
As a teen, to say I wasn't fond of reading would be an understatement. One of my favorite things, however, has always been horses.
One summer my mom gave me a mystery novel written by Dick Francis. I'm not sure which one as it was a very long time ago, but from page one I was hooked, I devoured it, cover to cover. From then on I read every single mystery novel Dick Francis published.
He remains my favorite author of all time.
I have a special place in my library at home where I treasure my collection of Dick and Felix Francis's books and I own every single novel that they have ever published, including the very first book written by Dick, Dead Cert, published in 1962.
If you're looking for a thrilling, heart pounding, hair raising ride, I highly recommend a mystery encompassed by the regal Sport of Queens written by Dick Francis.
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Though well worth the time to read, the collection is uneven. Some few are hardly stories, just a collection of words with no real point, no story.
Others, including the Sherlock Holmes and the Dick Francis, are excellent.
This collection is one that has much more good than not, and surely no one will finish completely disappointed, and certainly not angry.
In fact, some of the historical stories might make the whole book of value to the discerning reader.
Others, including the Sherlock Holmes and the Dick Francis, are excellent.
This collection is one that has much more good than not, and surely no one will finish completely disappointed, and certainly not angry.
In fact, some of the historical stories might make the whole book of value to the discerning reader.
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Love all his stuff
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"The Treasury of Great Racing Stories" edited, introduced and contributed to by Dick Francis and Robert Welcome. Quality varies: Unreadable, Familiar, Puzzling, Memorable. Jargon dialogue and slang slang is tricky, from fun to impossible, at best evoke a place and time that might as well be an alien planet now. Specialized vocabulary I learned: plater - horse sold after selling race; charlock - black mustard yellow flowered weed, seed oil caustic to livestock in large doses, vs white yields condiment, vanilla fragrance. T.G. could be tail gunner at plane rear or tail grower hair conditioner.
The order chosen is not explained, so I'll set alphabetical by author. My favorites are gold quaint Anderson, silver Doyle, Marquand, bronze medal (see how long I remember) to Somerville & Ross, Welcome.
9 Anderson, Sherwood
- I'm a Fool
J In the days of spats, new brown derby hats and standup collars, a big lumbering fellow of nineteen is back from his summer work on race-horses with Burt "a big nigger with a lazy sprawling body and soft kind eyes". On a day off at the races, puffed up on three 25c cigars and belts of whisky, the "boob" exchanges blushes with peach Miss Lucy, wants her to wife, but spouts "the smashingest lie you ever heard. "Gee whiz".
11 Davy, Colin
- The Major
J Twist ending when Major Slapper shows up to ride Solvent instead of Hawkey, after the narrator is tricked into a deal with sneaky Scoop to throw the race to Scollops.
2 Doyle, A. Conan
- Silver Blaze
FM Trainer coshed bloody dead, sliced by own fine scalpel, horse missing. Dog didn't bark in the night. Who doped stable-boy's curry?
13 Fain, William
- Harmony
P Maybe the relationship in France between 49-year old once famous in Europe English jockey Stephens and French wife who wants him to be a baker. Spoiler: When jealous young jockey Luzzi punches both eyes black, the has-been whips promising colt Tekel to end horse's racing career.
1 Findlay, Richard
- The Dream
I found tedious. Drags on and on, building up as details come true from Bobby Coplow's nightmare foreboding death in muddy Lutterton Meeting, where his October Miracle crashes and he falls off.
5 Foote, John Taintor
- The Look of Eagles
J In days of yessuh southern black boys, Judge Dillon orders narrator writer Four-Eyes and (another) Chick and Blister to help foolish frail Old Man Sanford, who, calm and sure, chooses racer bay Postman on the basis of his "look".
4 Francis, Dick
- Carrot for a Chestnut
FM Horror suspense. Nasty inept arrogant (Ger. besserwisser better-knower) teen Chick takes bribe for feeding doped vegetable to doomed heroic steed. The worst is the twist ending I remembered.
10 Galsworthy, John
- Had a Horse
MJ "Some quarter of a century ago, there abode in Oxford", "damped-down little" bookie Jimmy Shrewin, whose brief ownership of filly Calliope affected his self-esteem.
6 Keane, Molly
- Prime Rogues
UJ Action buried. "On Shank's mare" I know means walk. In dialogue, limon and chaistnut seem deliberate, but "irrespective" "purpling" "pondering" precision elsewhere makes p184 "voluably" a typo from narrator fatherless Oliver.
I was confused by babble till I summarized plot, distilled events to family near-scandal. The group watch a race first: sisters Lady Honour and Lady Eveleen, Billy Morgan of "preposterously good looks and voice" and Colonel Power, "ancient votary" with streaming long hair and beard. After, Oliver on Ladies' brown mare Surprise and Dick on his father and race steward Sir Richard's Romance race against other lads, such as "an M.F.H. with a face like one of his own dog hounds" (Master of Fox Hounds).
(Spoiler:
Richard discloses trainer Tommy to be owner against rules, so scares sisters (rogues) for a lesson, out of misdeeds, into selling Surprise; they thought Oliver riding would silence Richard under threat of scandal.)
8 Markham, Beryl
- The Splendid Outcast
In cold Newmarket England December sale, narrator from Kenya bids last few pounds on killer Rigel, against faded old man counting bills. The strength and whole plot is the effective words to convey the mass, weight, power of horses. Although I learned to ride enough to prefer gallop to trot, Western saddle to English, horses scare me. I co-operate rather than compete, so the ending surprises and disappoints me.
12 Marquand, J.P.
- What's It Get You
D Jack White relates to gentlemen in the bar when, against the advice of his cynical partner Henry Bledsoe, prodigious consumer of sodium bicarbonate to settle his nervous stomach, he suspected trouble concerning sneaky Maxey's Lighthouse against honorable old Mr Cananaugh and his pretty boyish blonde daughter Daisy's similar looking Fighting Bob.
14 de Somerville, E. & Ross, Martin
- The Bagman's Pony
J Supposedly a (Br.) bagman is a travelling salesman, and T.G. tail gunner in plane. Long ago in Delhi, the narrator races a scruffy looking pony left behind for bad debts. Memorable for the race itself, pounding dusty drumming hooves, helpful friends hinder.
7 Wallace, Edgar
- The Coop
UJ Bert Yardley 35ish advises on races, calls police when his gold watch vanishes (spoiler triumphs at end "coup" against) Educated Evans squirms when Nosey accused.
3 Welcome, John
- A Glass of Port with the Proctor
M 1930s Oxford student narrator set up to forfeit, then lose race by jealous competitor Kerrell.
The order chosen is not explained, so I'll set alphabetical by author. My favorites are gold quaint Anderson, silver Doyle, Marquand, bronze medal (see how long I remember) to Somerville & Ross, Welcome.
9 Anderson, Sherwood
- I'm a Fool
J In the days of spats, new brown derby hats and standup collars, a big lumbering fellow of nineteen is back from his summer work on race-horses with Burt "a big nigger with a lazy sprawling body and soft kind eyes". On a day off at the races, puffed up on three 25c cigars and belts of whisky, the "boob" exchanges blushes with peach Miss Lucy, wants her to wife, but spouts "the smashingest lie you ever heard. "Gee whiz".
11 Davy, Colin
- The Major
J Twist ending when Major Slapper shows up to ride Solvent instead of Hawkey, after the narrator is tricked into a deal with sneaky Scoop to throw the race to Scollops.
2 Doyle, A. Conan
- Silver Blaze
FM Trainer coshed bloody dead, sliced by own fine scalpel, horse missing. Dog didn't bark in the night. Who doped stable-boy's curry?
13 Fain, William
- Harmony
P Maybe the relationship in France between 49-year old once famous in Europe English jockey Stephens and French wife who wants him to be a baker. Spoiler: When jealous young jockey Luzzi punches both eyes black, the has-been whips promising colt Tekel to end horse's racing career.
1 Findlay, Richard
- The Dream
I found tedious. Drags on and on, building up as details come true from Bobby Coplow's nightmare foreboding death in muddy Lutterton Meeting, where his October Miracle crashes and he falls off.
5 Foote, John Taintor
- The Look of Eagles
J In days of yessuh southern black boys, Judge Dillon orders narrator writer Four-Eyes and (another) Chick and Blister to help foolish frail Old Man Sanford, who, calm and sure, chooses racer bay Postman on the basis of his "look".
4 Francis, Dick
- Carrot for a Chestnut
FM Horror suspense. Nasty inept arrogant (Ger. besserwisser better-knower) teen Chick takes bribe for feeding doped vegetable to doomed heroic steed. The worst is the twist ending I remembered.
10 Galsworthy, John
- Had a Horse
MJ "Some quarter of a century ago, there abode in Oxford", "damped-down little" bookie Jimmy Shrewin, whose brief ownership of filly Calliope affected his self-esteem.
6 Keane, Molly
- Prime Rogues
UJ Action buried. "On Shank's mare" I know means walk. In dialogue, limon and chaistnut seem deliberate, but "irrespective" "purpling" "pondering" precision elsewhere makes p184 "voluably" a typo from narrator fatherless Oliver.
I was confused by babble till I summarized plot, distilled events to family near-scandal. The group watch a race first: sisters Lady Honour and Lady Eveleen, Billy Morgan of "preposterously good looks and voice" and Colonel Power, "ancient votary" with streaming long hair and beard. After, Oliver on Ladies' brown mare Surprise and Dick on his father and race steward Sir Richard's Romance race against other lads, such as "an M.F.H. with a face like one of his own dog hounds" (Master of Fox Hounds).
(Spoiler:
Richard discloses trainer Tommy to be owner against rules, so scares sisters (rogues) for a lesson, out of misdeeds, into selling Surprise; they thought Oliver riding would silence Richard under threat of scandal.)
8 Markham, Beryl
- The Splendid Outcast
In cold Newmarket England December sale, narrator from Kenya bids last few pounds on killer Rigel, against faded old man counting bills. The strength and whole plot is the effective words to convey the mass, weight, power of horses. Although I learned to ride enough to prefer gallop to trot, Western saddle to English, horses scare me. I co-operate rather than compete, so the ending surprises and disappoints me.
12 Marquand, J.P.
- What's It Get You
D Jack White relates to gentlemen in the bar when, against the advice of his cynical partner Henry Bledsoe, prodigious consumer of sodium bicarbonate to settle his nervous stomach, he suspected trouble concerning sneaky Maxey's Lighthouse against honorable old Mr Cananaugh and his pretty boyish blonde daughter Daisy's similar looking Fighting Bob.
14 de Somerville, E. & Ross, Martin
- The Bagman's Pony
J Supposedly a (Br.) bagman is a travelling salesman, and T.G. tail gunner in plane. Long ago in Delhi, the narrator races a scruffy looking pony left behind for bad debts. Memorable for the race itself, pounding dusty drumming hooves, helpful friends hinder.
7 Wallace, Edgar
- The Coop
UJ Bert Yardley 35ish advises on races, calls police when his gold watch vanishes (spoiler triumphs at end "coup" against) Educated Evans squirms when Nosey accused.
3 Welcome, John
- A Glass of Port with the Proctor
M 1930s Oxford student narrator set up to forfeit, then lose race by jealous competitor Kerrell.
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