Talk:Dick Francis

Trivia

What is the relevancy of the same birthdate as Helmut Newton. Hopbine 21:31, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree. I am deleting the paragraph. Leuliett 01:53, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Fair use images

This article is not about the book Bolt, nor does it discuss the book. It simply has it on the list of books by the author. As such, it is not an appropriate fair use of the image, Image:Dick Francis - Bolt - Pan 1988 paperback book cover.jpg. As such, I'm removing the image from the article. — ERcheck (talk) 23:37, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Films, radio plays, audio books and TV series based on Dick Francis books

Arthurvasey (talk) 12:42, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Several of Dick Francis's books have been made into films or TV shows:

Dead Cert - a completely different plot in the film, to that of the book (don't wish to put spoilers in - but it's a different killer and the method is different).

Three other books have also been made into films for Radio Telefis Eireann - all starring Ian McShane as the character from Slay-Ride, David Cleveland - one of which was Blood Sport - the narrative character in that is one Gene Hawkins - but they have used David Cleveland instead - having not seen these films, I can't tell you if there are any differences in the plot.

Yorkshire Television also made a series which, I think, was an adaptation of the first Sid Halley novel, Odds Against - only they called it "The Dick Francis Thriller: The Racing Game".

BBC Radio have adapted some of Dick Francis's books as well - Enquiry, with Tony Osoba as Kelly Hughes, Bonecrack, with Francis Matthews (the voice of Captain Scarlet) as Neil Griffon, Proof, with Nigel Havers as Tony Beach, Rat Race, with Hywel Bennett (Shelley) as Matt Shore.

They have also adapted Bolt - not sure about its prequel, Break-In.

Nearly all Dick Francis books are available on audiotape, read by various actors - some on the Listen For Pleasure record label, all abridgements. Random Century/Random House took over later on, more recently Penguin - Penguin initially used various actors, but then made Martin Jarvis the sole reader - following on from his skills at his reading of the Just William stories for the BBC. All two-cassette packages.

Unabridged readings of many Dick Francis books, read by Tony Britton, are available from some lending libraries - they come in packs of about eight to ten cassettes - you may need to ask around. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Arthurvasey (talk • contribs) 12:39, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Cause of death?

These matters should be recorded.

"Dick lived on alone in Grand Cayman for years even though his health deteriorated and he had to have a heart bypass operation in 2006 and his right leg amputated in 2007."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250944/Former-jockey-best-selling-author-Dick-Francis-dies-89.html#ixzz0fa4uh1AE —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.85.14.106 (talk) 05:50, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

His spokesperson only said he died of natural causes. Anyone have a ref for the specific cause? Lkjhgfdsa 0 (talk) 14:12, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

True authorship controversy

Any verdict on the recent claims that all his books were researched and written by his wife Mary? 86.183.206.77 (talk) 12:06, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

I believe that those same rumours were abound when he was alive. His response was to give Mary full credit for how much she helped in his research, etc. If the rumours were true, how is it that he wrote several of his books after her death? His son Felix helped with those, and was given co-authorship on some as well, but you can still easily tell the DF style in reading them, although the latter ones show more of Felix' influence. I have all of DF's books, have read all of them multiple times (I'm a big fan), and think that the rumors are most lkely unfounded.... HiFlyChick (talk) 09:09, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

The books after Mary's death are very different -- the hero is less likable, there's much less narrative drive. They're also just not as well-plotted or well-written, but if it were just a matter of competent writing/plotting, I could overlook it as he was getting older at this point, but the heroes are different, the voice is different. She may have only been editing heavily, but the likelihood is she strongly shaped his books. However, until someone else does an investigation, the controversy is probably not something the wikipedia can do more than simply mention. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.28.159.49 (talk) 21:07, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

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