dual personalities

2021 is not shaping up to be a particularly pleasant year (notice my use of understatement). My normal response when I think the world is heading in a particularly crazy direction is to retreat into my comfort zone, which means staying home, rereading or re-watching old favorites and eating chocolate. Yesterday, while talking to my DP, I mentioned several of my favorite rereads: children’s books (C.S. Lewis, Kipling, Frances Hodgson Burnett…) and 60s popular fiction (Mary Stewart, Alistair MacLean, Helen MacInnis), but I forgot to mention Dick Francis, the author of more than forty horse-racing mysteries.

As a former jockey himself, he knew his stuff. After riding for the Queen Mother for many years, he retired in 1957 and soon devoted himself to writing.

Sure, his books follow a formula, but that is what makes them so pleasant. The reader can always count on his heroes to be stalwart, intelligent, decent men, and his heroines to exhibit equivalent feminine qualities. There are no superhero antics, no space-age gadgetry, and no cheap deus ex machina endings — just good pacing, mild peril and solid detective work. Not only does Francis teach the reader a lot about horses and horse-racing, but he offers the average Joe an achievable model of behavior. For example, in Whip Hand he wrote, “I guessed life was like that. You gained and you lost, and if you saved anything from the ruins, even if only a shred of self-respect, it was enough to take you through the next bit.”* Now that’s a good attitude.

So, if you feel the need for escape but have re-read your usual comfort books, I recommend you read some Dick Francis.

And, as always, have a grand weekend!