Stars pay tribute to author Dick Francis
STARS from the horse racing and literary worlds joined together yesterday to honour novelist Dick Francis.
Lester Piggott, Colin Dexter and Sir Tim Rice all attended the service at London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Francis, author of 42 novels, died in February aged 89. Thriller writer and Daily Express columnist Frederick Forsyth was among those who paid tribute. He said of Francis: “He was one of nature’s gentlemen.”
A champion jockey, Francis won more than 300 races and rode for the Queen Mother.
But he famously lost the Grand National in 1956 when his horse, Devon Loch, collapsed.
He retired in 1957 to write for the Sunday Express before becoming a novelist.