The Blonde Bombshell and the King of Iraq

Dick Francis the racing author has always been a hero of mine – have been collecting his books for forty years. I was delighted last week at a Society of Authors’ symposium to sit next to and chat with his son Felix, who has continued to write the Francis thrillers.

He had been to Royal Ascot in a 1938 Rolls-Royce Phantom, once owned by ‘Blonde Bombshell’ Diana Dors, and which was also owned by the King of Iraq. The car ended up in Istanbul – happily out of Iraq when a coup occurred, and was then driven back home to Britain.

Felix Francis still has a house in the Cayman Islands to where his father moved to escape horrendous British tax rates, and has a new book, ‘Damage’, out in the autumn.