I wrote secretly as Dick Francis to keep sales of his books alive

Felix Francis, son of champion jockey and best-selling author Dick Francis, began secretly writing books under his father’s name while he was still alive.

The 70-year-old former science teacher, now a best-selling author himself, tells Donna Ferguson that his father never wrote another novel after his mother Mary – who “polished his father’s prose” – died in 2000.

Felix took over his father’s legacy and began writing ‘Dick Francis’ novels in 2005, to increase demand for his father’s backlist.

He lives in London, Devon and the Cotswolds with his wife Debbie.

What did your parents teach you about money?

My father taught me to be careful with it, while my mother taught me to deal with it for good. Later in life, when he was making very good money, he was extremely generous and always paid for things. He felt it was his position to do so.

And although he wanted me and my older brother Merrick to stand on our own two feet, there was always a backup for us if necessary. That is also my own approach to children.

What did your mother do for a living?

My father and mother wrote the books together. He had the ideas and wrote things down, and my mother polished the prose to get it into shape for publication.

To me, “Dick Francis” was always Richard (that’s what my mother called my father) and Mary Francis. My brother and I learned to be quiet in the house during the school holidays because they were both working on a book.

We grew up in what I consider one of the greatest fiction factories of the 20th century. My mother also owned a clothing store for 21 years and learned to fly.

Why was your mother never credited?

My dad always said he would like Mom’s name on the front, but she wouldn’t hear of it.

Dick Francis was already quite a household name after my father rode Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National and his horse, which belonged to the Queen Mother, collapsed as he was about to win, just 40 yards from the winning post .

So I think my mother was pretty savvy about marketing and Dick Francis was the name to use.

Were you always a wealthy family?

My parents had no money at all when they first got married. They lived in a converted hayloft in a stable and my mother papered the inside with newspaper to prevent drafts from getting between the wooden planks.

Being a champion jockey was quite lucrative and my parents bought some land and built their own house in 1953. So we weren’t having a hard time, but I remember my mother complaining that the carpets were worn out. And when the clutch went bad on my dad’s lovely 1948 Mark IV Jaguar, he swapped it for an Austin A40 because running the Jag was so expensive he couldn’t afford to have the clutch repaired.

I was eight when their first novel, Dead Cert, was published in 1962. They celebrated by buying a new car. The next novel was published in 1964, there were two in 1965, then one every year for the rest of the millennium. Towards the end of the 1960s, things started to go very well for my parents. My father had 34 number one bestsellers in a row. If he hadn’t made money from novels, no one would have done that.

They got a four-seat plane, which they used as an air taxi, a nicer boat and started traveling more. In 1967, my father bought my mother a dark blue MGB GT sports car for her birthday.

When did you start writing Dick Francis novels?

It all came about by accident. In 2000 my parents decided to retire. They found the last book, Shattered, to be a huge struggle. My mother had not been well for years and they lived in the West Indies.

When I went to collect the book and take it back to Britain, I discovered that it was only two-thirds written. So I rolled up my sleeves and wrote the last third in a week. My mother died of a heart attack that year, three weeks after they announced their retirement. Five years later, my father’s literary agent asked me to lunch. I was taking care of my father’s affairs and he told me that my father’s books were going out of print because no new book had been published in five years. He said we need a new hardback, which would boost sales of the backlist.

I looked at him and said, ‘Are you crazy? Mom and Dad worked together. Mom is dead and Dad is 85. Bless him, he can barely remember what he ate for breakfast, let alone enough to write a book.”

The agent explained that he was asking my permission to ask an existing crime writer to write a Dick Francis novel. I must have had a few glasses of wine by then because before he asked anyone else I said I’d like to give it a try. So I did.

When that book, Under Orders, came out in 2006, my name was nowhere in it and no one knew I had written it. For eight years I couldn’t tell anyone that. But I can do it now.

Did it sell as well as your father’s books?

Of course, because it had Dick Francis on the cover. But I was afraid all the reviews would say Francis had lost it. Actually, they all said the master is back. With the second one I wrote Dick Francis in large letters on the cover and – in the smallest font they could find – Felix Francis as well.

My latest book, No Reserve, has “a Dick Francis novel” written all over it, because I think Dick Francis really is a brand.

Sadly, my father passed away in 2010. I have now written seventeen Dick Francis books. When I write them, I feel closer to my parents. And Dick Francis’ backlist is still in print, so I must be doing something right.

What was the best year of your financial life?

In 1991 my father asked me to leave my day job as an A-level science teacher to become his manager. He offered to double my salary. I agreed and after struggling to survive on a teacher’s salary, my money worries disappeared.

The most expensive thing you bought for fun?

The Jaguar Mark IV that my father exchanged for the Austin in 1960. I bought it about ten years ago for £70,000. The previous owner found me.

The best money decision you’ve made?

In 1999 they bought a two-bedroom apartment with views of Buckingham Palace and parking for £350,000. Now they are being sold for £2 million.

Are you saving for a pension?

Yes, but now I get more money out of it than I put in. I am 70 and my wife and I have four children together. We raise money to help them. I also receive my teacher’s pension and my AOW.

Do you have property?

In addition to the flat in London, we have a holiday home in Devon and we live in a seven-bedroom country house in Oxfordshire, with a cottage on the property where our driver and maintenance man lives. It’s a great treat, so it’s on the market for £4.5 million.

What is your financial priority?

To ensure that I never have to worry about money, and neither do my children.

• No Reserve by Felix Francis is out now, published by Zaffre, £20.