I have only ever read one of Francis' racing thrillers and cannot remember it. Others tell me that they love his books and have read them all. He has a fan base of thousands, if not millions of readers.
This autobiography, to me, does him insufficient justice. He tells a bit about his childhood, then moves on to his war service (airframe fitter in RAF for years until his 37th application to fly is approved, after which he pilots fighter planes, Wellington bombers and a glider. But that interesting (?) time is covered in about three or four pages. Too little. Unsurprisingly he gives a lot of time to his successful career as a jockey (Champion Jockey and nearly but not quite Grand National winning jockey on Devon Loch in the 1950's). Little time is given to his famous thriller writing either, which surprized me.
As to the man himself, jockey like reticence rules. I cannot agree with his love of foxhunting, even less with the idea that "a kill is the only satisfactory conclusion to the chase". Terrible. So I was left with a rather bland feeling somehow.
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