Dick Francis: from rider to writer

iVillage: What have you enjoyed most about your writing career?

Dick Francis: Well, I don't really like writing, but I love doing research. My books are all about different things - photography, pharmacology, computers, painting. I try to get a different subject into every novel. But it's hard work writing. I don't use many superfluous words. The newspaper taught me that. That's how I learned to make the books tightly written. I try to make every word count.

iVillage: Your wife helps you research your books. How do you work together?

Dick Francis: We talk about the books a lot while I'm writing. It's a joint affair. There are passages about the females in them and how females think, and Mary's always a great help with that.

The royal connection

iVillage: ShatteredShattered was dedicated to the Queen Mother. How did you come to meet her?

Dick Francis: Originally it was because of my riding. I was her jockey, you might say. I won quite a few races for her and it was her horse that collapsed with me on it. We were friends ever since. She was always the first recipient of every book I ever wrote.

iVillage: Why do you choose not to use a series character in most of your novels?

Dick Francis: I don't usually like using the same character again because I feel I'm not a born writer and building the characters throughout the story helps me to fill the novel up. And I like to get into a different character. I'm not an Ian Fleming, where he has James Bond time and time again.

iVillage: Do you have a favourite out of all the books you have written?

Dick Francis: I've written 41 books in my time. My own autobiography was the first one, and I wrote Lester Piggott's biography and 39 novels, although one of the novels was a group of short stories, Field of Thirteen. I've been asked which one was my favourite many times, and the one you've just written is always your most favourite. When people ask you, it's with you right at that time. From a lot of my earlier books, I can mostly remember the main characters, but you can't remember every character in every book.