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Former jockey and bestelling thriller writer Dick Francis has died at the age of 89, sparking a range of tributes in the press. Francis died at his home Grand Cayman.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8515642.stm" target="_blank" title="The">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8515642.stm">The BBC reports that the Queen was saddened to learn of his death, with the Queen Mother having been one of the writer's more notable fans. Frederick Forsyth praised Francis's "immensely prolific" output of "page-turners" and said authors were still "walking in his footsteps".
Francis was the author of forty-two novels, a volume of short stories, an autobiography (The Sport of Queens) and the biography of Lester Piggott. Even Money, written with his younger son, Felix, was published in September 2009 and Crossfire, the new Dick and Felix Francis novel, will be published in autumn 2010. In">http://www.thebookseller.com/news/105817-penguin-takes-dick-francis-pape... December last year the duo moved their paperback publishing to Penguin from Macmillan after more than 40 years.
Felix Francis said: "My brother, Merrick, and I are, of course devastated by the loss of our father, but we rejoice in having been the sons of such an extraordinary man. We share in the joy that he brought to so many over such a long life. It is an honour for me to be able to continue his remarkable legacy through the new novels."
A statement from Pan Macmillan read: "All of us at Pan Macmillan were very sad to hear of the death of Dick Francis at the weekend. We are enormously proud to have been his paperback publisher for over forty years and to have helped establish him as one the iconic authors of the 20th century. In an age when publishing houses consolidated into large conglomerates Dick remained loyal and immensely courteous to both his hardcover publisher, Michael Joseph, and to Pan, his paperback publisher. He was a true gentleman. His fiction gave pleasure to millions and, along with them, we mourn his passing."
Since records began in 1998, Nielsen BookScan has recorded hardback sales worth £5.2m of Francis' novels, with Shattered (2000) his most successful hardback, followed by Under Orders (2006). Over the same period his paperback publishing has been worth £7.6m, with Second Wind (1999) generating the most sales.
Francis averaged a novel a year since his first was published in 1962, but did not write one for six years after the death of his wife and collaborator Mary Francis in 2000. According the Guardian, the">http://www.thebookseller.com/news/23770-dick-francis-rides-again-with-pe... couple had an arrangement with the publisher Michael Joseph that all Francis's books, including his first, a biography called The Sport of Queens, would remain in print so long as he produced a new novel each year.
There will be a small funeral at Dick's home in Grand Cayman, followed by a memorial service in London in due course.