I hadn’t had a mother since I was two, and from then until seven I had believed God was someone who had run off with her and was living with her somewhere else... (God took your mother, dear, because he needed her more than you do) which had never endeared him to me

Directed by Tony Richardson it starred Scott Antony Judi Dench and Michael Williams. His autobiography says that he was born at his maternal grandparents' farm at Coedcanlas on the estuary of the River Cleddau roughly a mile north-west of Lawrenny. Unlike most he was hospitalized at the age of 12 when a pony fell on him and broke his jaw and nose.

Richard Stanley "Dick" Francis CBE FRSL (31 October 1920 – 14 February 2010) was a Britishsteeplechase jockey and crime writer whose novels centre around horse racing in England while also featuring a variety of locations and occupations.