Unfortunately, for him, the crunch on his skull after the auction is not the last. But his life is thrust into danger immediately following the auction when he receives a blow to the head by two thugs demanding ownership of the horse. For a generous commission, ex-prize-winning jockey Jonah Dereham agrees to bid on a special horse for a wealthy American lady. Knock Down is a classic novel from Dick Francis, one of the greatest thriller writers of all time. All his novels deal with crime in the horse-racing world, with some of the criminals being outwardly respectable figures. He won over 350 races, becoming a champion jockey in the 1953–54 season. After leaving the RAF in 1946, Francis became a highly successful jockey, reaching celebrity status in the world of British National Hunt racing. Instead, he served in the Royal Air Force.

During the Second World War, Francis volunteered, hoping to join the cavalry. Francis became a highly successful jockey, reaching celebrity status in the world of British National Hunt racing. Dick Francis left school at 15 without any qualifications, intending to become a jockey by the time he was 18, in 1938, he also was training horses.

Finish your tour in front of the stands at the Rowley Mile racecourse imagining the impact of the bomb going off in DEAD HEAT before relaxing and reminiscing past storylines over a delicious cream tea at the Bedford Lodge Hotel where Francis characters often stayed as did Dick Francis himself.Richard Stanley Francis was a British crime writer, and former steeplechase jockey, whose novels centre on horse racing in England. See the gallops where the horse was tragically shot in BONECRACK and from the top of the famous Warren Hill view the sales ring mentioned in KNOCKDOWN. This guided tour takes you past a number of those named places, where you can visualise for yourselves the unfolding drama in CRISIS as you pass the stables on the Bury Road. Whilst the storylines were cleverly scripted, many of the locations referenced were physical, iconic buildings located within Newmarket. Join us on a literary tour, via bus and foot, around the historic town of Newmarket and see many of the places that crime novelist and former champion steeplechase, Francis, featured in his realistic plots based in the spiritual home of horseracing.ĭick Francis wrote some 50 thriller books during his second career and then later his son Felix took up the pen allowing our hero to continue to investigate a series of fictitious crimes based around the world of racing.

Knockdown by Dick Francis