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Mary Margaret Francis (17 June 1924 – 30 September 2000) was a British author who has been credited with an extensive role helping her husband, crime writer Dick Francis, write his novels. She also was a small-business entrepreneur who operated a dress shop and an air taxi service.

Biography

Mary Margaret Brenchley was born on 17 June 1924, to a printing company director. She attended Milton Mount College then Royal Holloway, University of London, studying French and English. While at university, she published two short stories. After working as a publisher's reader, an English teacher and assistant stage manager at the Hereford Theatre, she met the jockey Dick Francis at a 1945 wedding, and married him in 1947, making her wedding dress out of cheesecloth. In 1949, Mary Francis had their first child. Their second child is Felix Francis. She also operated a dress shop.

She helped her husband write many of his books and was credited with an extensive contribution to them by Dick Francis, though the extent of her contribution has been debated. Graham Lord argued in an unauthorized biography that she was a major contributor for his books and served as a ghostwriter. Francis told Lord that, "Dick would like me to have all the credit for them".

While her husband was working on Flying Finish, she started an air taxi service, wrote a manual "Flying Start: A Guide to Flying Light Aircraft" and learnt to fly. She edited and took several photographs that were used on the dust jacket of her husband's novels. Dick Francis told Jean Swanson and Dean James in an interview:

Mary and I worked as a team. ... I have often said that I would have been happy to have both our names on the cover. Mary's family always called me Richard due to having another Dick in the family. I am Richard, Mary was Mary, and Dick Francis was the two of us together.

The couple spent their later years in Florida and the Cayman Islands. She died on 30 September 2000 in an apartment in George Town. A memorial service for her was held on 29 November at the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, in which Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was represented by Alastair Aird. John Major was also present.

References

1. ^ Carvajal, Doreen. "Mary Francis, 76, Quiet Force Behind Dick Francis's Novels". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
2. ^ "Mary Francis". The Times. 6 October 2000. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
3. ^ Woo, Elaine (10 October 2000). "Mary Francis; Edited Husband's Novels". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
4. "Was It Author's Wife Who Dunnit?". New York Post. 20 October 1999. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
5. "Dick Francis thrillers 'were ghost written by wife'". The Independent. 20 October 1999. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
6. Swanson, Jean; Dean James (2003). "An Interview with Dick Francis". The Dick Francis Companion. New York: Berkeley Prime Crime. pp. 1–10. ISBN 0-425-18187-1.
7. Davies, Hugh (5 October 2000). "'Heartbroken' Dick Francis buries his wife". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
8. "Mrs. Dick Francis". The Times. 29 November 2000. ISSN 0140-0460.

• 1924 births
• 2000 deaths
• Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London
• 20th-century British women writers
• British writers