Felix Francis is a British crime writer and Dick Francis’ younger son. He was a science teacher before quitting to look after his father’s literary affairs. His first solo novel, which began the ‘Dick Francis novel’ franchise, was Gamble, published in 2011. His latest thriller, No Reserve, was published in September 2023. [related]
You must have grown up in a world dominated by horses and books, though your career initially took a very different path. What drew you into the family business of writing?
Being with horses is the pre-eminent memory of my childhood. Whenever it was not a school day, my brother and I would ride our ponies up onto the Berkshire Downs behind a string of racehorses from the local trainer. However, when I was 14, I had some major hip problems and spent many months lying on my back in hospital. That stopped me riding, not just then but for life. My passion at school was for science, physics in particular, so that is what I read at university, and then I became an A-Level physics teacher. Books grew in importance as the years progressed and I assisted my father with the research, especially the science bits. I also wrote bits of the books, especially in the completion of my father’s novel, Shattered, in 2000. But in the summer of 2005, my father’s literary agent asked me to lunch. “Felix, we have a problem,” he said. “There hasn’t been a new Dick Francis novel for five years and everyone is forgetting about them. Hence, all your father’s books are likely to go out of print. What we need is a new hardback, to stimulate sales of the backlist.” I stared at him. “Are you crazy?” I said, “Mum and Dad wrote them together. Mum’s been dead for five years and Dad is 85 and can hardly remember what he had for breakfast let alone enough to write a new book.” “What I’m actually asking,” the agent replied, “is for your permission to ask an established crime writer to write a new Dick Francis hardback.” Well, I must have really been enjoying the lunch because I said, “Before you ask anyone else, I would like to have a go.” The agent didn’t laugh or even raise his eyebrows. “OK,” he said. “I’ll give you two months to write two chapters and then we’ll see.” And now, eighteen years later, I’ve written the last seventeen Dick Francis novels, and all my father’s backlist are still in print!
You collaborated with your father, bestselling crime writer Dick Francis, on four books before his death. Did you always intend to continue writing books set in the racing world?
I started in 2005 with Under Orders, which was published in 2006 as a Dick Francis book, even though I wrote it. I also wrote the books that came out with both our names on them, though I discussed various aspect of them with my father. In fact, he didn’t even read the fourth one, Crossfire, as he died when it was only half written and he had been too unwell to read the first half. As long as I can find a story, I will continue to write books that have horse racing in them somewhere, but I don’t actually write about the horses, I write about the people. Horse racing is simply the canvas against which I paint the human stories, and what a great canvas it is — highly competitive, high value and very high adrenalin.
You have a new book, No Reserve, coming out in the U.K. in September. Can you tell us a little about this, and what the inspiration was?
The inspiration was the bloodstock sales, in particular those at Newmarket. Horse racing and gambling are intertwined, always have been, always will be. But the biggest gambles in racing are not placed with a bookmaker or in the betting shops, they occur in the sales rings, where vast sums are staked on untested, unridden and as yet unnamed yearling colts in the hope they will turn out to be world beaters, and future sires of champions. As the book opens, auctioneer Theo Jennings is selling a yearling colt for three million guineas, his first ever multi-million sale. When he overhears a conversation that implies that the colt was purposely bid up well above its true value and then the colt is found dead in its stable the next day, Theo is suspicious. But when a dead body is discovered in the same stables fingers get pointed, most of them at Theo. His life starts to spiral out of control, so he decides that the only way to clear his name is to find the real killer himself. The higher the stakes the greater the risk. No Reserve — the title says it all!
Is there an international market in which your books sell particularly well? Do you have any books that have been published in Arabic-speaking countries?
My books sell particularly well in the U.K., the U.S.A., Czechia, Slovakia, Germany and Japan. In all my books have been translated into about 30 languages, but I do not believe I have had any books so far translated into Arabic, though my English language books do sell in Arabic-speaking countries.
Have you been to Sharjah before? What are you hoping to gain from your visit to this year’s book fair?
I visited Sharjah for the book fair in 2014 when I spoke at an event. I also went to the horse races when I was there and greatly enjoyed my time in the country. I hope that my visit this year will help to widen the appeal of the Dick Francis novels and encourage more people to read my books. I also look forward to learning more about the culture—maybe Sharjah will appear in a future novel!
