{"podcast":{"title":"Slightly Foxed","slug":"slightly-foxed-725618","podcast_index_feed_id":725618,"rss_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/4974324.rss","website_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/4974324","image_url":"https://audioboom.com/i/33763391.jpg","author":"Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader's Quarterly","episode_count":60,"summary":"The independent-minded book review magazine that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. Slightly Foxed introduces its readers to books that are no longer new and fashionable but have lasting appeal. Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it’s more like a well-read friend than a literary magazine. Come behind the scenes with the staff of Slightly Foxed to learn what makes this unusual literary magazine tick, meet some of its varied friends and contributors, and hear their personal recommendations for favourite and often forgotten books that have helped, haunted, informed or entertained them. For more information about Slightly Foxed visit: foxedquarterly.com","last_synced_at":"2026-07-15T18:20:50.929915+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618"},"episode":{"title":"56: The Thrilling World of Dick Francis","slug":"56-the-thrilling-world-of-dick-francis","published_at":"2026-01-15T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618/56-the-thrilling-world-of-dick-francis","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618","url":"https://audioboom.com/posts/8829636","audio_url":"https://audioboom.com/posts/8829636.mp3?modified=1768403870&sid=4974324&source=rss","summary":"Wartime bomber pilot, champion jockey, racing journalist, bestselling novelist, Dick Francis truly was a legend. The Slightly Foxed team join Dick’s son Felix and renowned racing commentator Derek Thompson (‘Tommo’ to his fans) to talk about the modest man who left school at 15 but went on to write thrillers set in the world of racing that have sold more than 60 million copies in 35 languages. Dick grew up with horses and riding was in his blood, though he didn’t become a professional jockey until he was 26, an age when many jockeys are retiring. But he quickly became one of the most successful National Hunt jockeys (and Champion Jockey in 1953–4), riding winners for top owners including the Queen and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. And it was the spectacular collapse of the Queen Mother’s horse Devon Loch beneath him on the point of winning the Grand National in 1956 that finally persuaded Dick to retire from racing and begin a new career, first as a journalist and then as a writer of endlessly inventive crime fiction. So how did he do it? The novels, with their evocative titles – Dead Cert , Decider , Bolt , Hot Money – take you straight into the world of old-fashioned racing with its toffs and touts and inevitable shady characters. According to Felix, the writing of them was always a partnership, with Dick, a born storyteller, producing the plots and the atmosphere and his wife Mary as brilliant researcher and editor. Felix, too, helped with writing and research, and after Dick’s death in 2010 he was persuaded by Dick’s literary agent to keep the Francis ‘brand’ alive. He is now the author of 19 bestselling ‘Dick Francis’ novels, bringing the racing scene up to date with a female jockey as the heroine of his latest, Dark Horse . Along with Dick Francis’s story of…","meta_description":"Wartime bomber pilot, champion jockey, racing journalist, bestselling novelist, Dick Francis truly was a legend. The Slightly Foxed team join Dick’s son F…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3460,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/slightly-foxed-725618/episodes/56-the-thrilling-world-of-dick-francis/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/slightly-foxed-725618/56-the-thrilling-world-of-dick-francis.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}