{"id":1676,"date":"2014-11-10T16:27:43","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T15:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodvale.co.uk\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2014-11-10T16:27:43","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T15:27:43","slug":"apprentice-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/apprentice-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Apprentice Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

A legend both on the turf and on the page Dick Francis eventually asked his son to help carry on the family business of writing novels. Katherine Locke talked to Felix Francis who has successfully taken the reins.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is unusual to finish writing a book your father started, but made even more so when you are not actually a writer by trade. Felix Francis, son of Dick Francis, has taken on an uncommon legacy and one that he certainly wasn\u2019t prepared for. \u2018My father was a prolific writer\u2019, he says, \u2018producing almost a book a year for 40 years\u2019. Felix had no intention of following in his fathers\u2019 writing footsteps; in fact it was his dream to be pilot.<\/p>\n

Inspired, perhaps, by his father\u2019s time as a pilot in WW11, Felix had always been fascinated by aeroplanes. A childhood illness meant he wasn\u2019t able to join the RAF, but British Airways did accept him. Due to start his new job immediately after graduation, everything was going to plan for Felix, until a devastating letter arrived from BA explaining that he was \u2018not a good bet for the pension scheme\u2019, and therefore the job offer was withdrawn.<\/p>\n

\u2018My friends were all going off to start various careers and I was left with nothing\u2014a physics degree and nowhere to use it\u2019. The letter that changed the course of Felix\u2019s life arrived on Friday, but by Monday, through sheer determination and a dash of luck, he had a job at Hampton Grammar School as a physics teacher. \u2018It wasn\u2019t what I had planned at all, but it turned out that I really loved it\u2019.<\/p>\n

Felix went on to have a very successful teaching career, becoming Head of Science at Bloxham School, near Oxford. At this stage, his parents were living in Florida and in 1987 Dick Francis was having problems sorting out his papers for the accountant. \u2018My mother asked if I could come over to help, and I thought, \u201cIt can\u2019t be that difficult\u201d. Four years later, I was flying out every half term and holiday to help and was totally exhausted. Finally, my father said, \u201cGive up your day job and I\u2019ll double your salary\u201d, so that\u2019s what I did\u201d.<\/p>\n

Felix spent the next few years working for his father, doing everything from changing a light bulb to advising on investments, but it was at a lunch in The Gay Hussar in Greek Street with his father\u2019s literary agent, that the seed of a new idea was sown. \u2018The agent told me that we had a problem. My father\u2019s books were falling out of fashion, and as such some of them were going out of print\u2019. With over a thousand new books being published every week in the UK, there was just no room for the old ones and it was a thought that shocked Felix. The agent asked if he could commission a writer to finish the latest book. The idea was to inject new passion into the work and stimulate the backlist.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018I thought about it for a minute or two and then heard the words \u201cI\u2019d like to have a go\u201d, coming out of my mouth\u2019. Felix was given two months to come up with a few chapters. Much to his relief, they were approved and the collaboration began in earnest. Although Felix is quick to point out that the Dick Francis publishing empire had always been a collaborative affair. \u2018My mother used to say it was a cottage industry, without the cottage\u2019, says Felix. Dick Francis had a very strict writing schedule, whereby he would sit down to write a novel in January, the publisher would pick up the pages in June and it was published in September. Mary Francis (Felix\u2019s mother) was central in helping with research and supporting the writing. \u2018The novel writing had always been very much part of our family life and plot lines would be discussed around the table\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n

This early training obviously paid off, as the four novels father and son wrote together became best sellers and the Dick Francis back catalogue was saved. Felix has gone on to write a further four himself, all of which have gathered a huge fan following. The latest novel Damage is the 50th in the series. \u2018The books have all been put out by the same publisher\u2019, says Felix, \u2018and there is a definite pride in continuing the family business\u2019.<\/p>\n

The family business, of course, was a spin off from Dick Francis\u2019 hugely successful racing career. \u2018My father was a champion jockey, winning over 350 races during his career and he was jockey to the Queen Mother the year I was born\u2019, he says.\u00a0 By 1957, Dick had sustained so many injuries that the Queen Mother advised him to retire. However, his love of racing never waned, and he continued to be involved in the sport up until his death in 2000.<\/p>\n

\u2018My childhood was spent travelling around the country to various race courses\u2019, says Felix. \u2018Our lives were seeped in racing and I knew my way around the country solely by which racecourse we were at. My father was a well-known figure on the circuit and we were used to people whispering, \u201cthat\u2019s Dick Francis\u201d, when we went by, which made a huge impression on me\u2019.<\/p>\n

Felix also recalls how fortunate they were to have a father who was home so much of the time. \u2018It wasn\u2019t that usual in the 1950\u2019s and 60\u2019s to have a father at home, so we were very lucky. When we were riding our ponies in the field, he would lean out of the study window and shout instructions at us. We would completely ignore him, as we were entirely focussed on being Lester Piggot!\u2019<\/p>\n

Felix Francis still visits racecourses as part of his work. \u2018I was at Uttoxeter recently, filming a trailer and as I walked past a group of people, I heard a whisper go up \u201cthat\u2019s Felix Francis\u201d. I almost turned around and hugged them\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A legend both on the turf and on the page Dick Francis eventually asked his son to help carry on the family business of writing novels. Katherine Locke talked to Felix Francis who has successfully taken the reins. It is unusual to finish writing a book your father started, but made even more so when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-1676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts","tag-katherine-locke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}