Ha, I'm glad you liked the fic - it was so funny - and that it led you to the book!
This is the first Francis book featuring Sid Halley, the only Francis hero to actually get a series, presumably because Francis realized that Halley suffered too beautifully to be confined to one book.
I actually know why that happened, weirdly, because it's the same reason I wound up reading the series - ITV made a series based on Odds Against in the late 70s, called The Racing Game, starring Mike Gwilym as Sid and my fave Dead Actor Blorbo, James Maxwell, as Charles. Dick Francis apparently loved it so much, and Mike Gwilym in particular, that he wrote Whip Hand (which is dedicated to Mike Gwilym & the series producer) & he eventually followed that up with a couple more. I found out about this when someone linked me to book-fic with Charles, and I was just: ??? but this is pitch perfect JM, how did they do that without knowing? And the answer is that DF kept the casting for the books - he also tried to sand the novels into line with the TV series in Whip Hand, so it kind of follows on more from the TV version of OA than it does the original, and therefore Dick Francis and I do have one thing in common: we have both committed James Maxwell fanfic, lol. (I read Odds Against last and was startled by it having differences to the TV adaptation and the rest of the series.)
Anyway, Whip Hand has the most Sid/Charles and is therefore my favourite, and Come To Grief was also good, while the last one was much later and not so good, but it did contain one priceless moment when Sid takes his new fiancee home to meet Charles and then gets jealous that they get on so well, because Charles is HIS OMG.
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Date: 2025-02-11 06:05 pm (UTC)This is the first Francis book featuring Sid Halley, the only Francis hero to actually get a series, presumably because Francis realized that Halley suffered too beautifully to be confined to one book.
I actually know why that happened, weirdly, because it's the same reason I wound up reading the series - ITV made a series based on Odds Against in the late 70s, called The Racing Game, starring Mike Gwilym as Sid and my fave Dead Actor Blorbo, James Maxwell, as Charles. Dick Francis apparently loved it so much, and Mike Gwilym in particular, that he wrote Whip Hand (which is dedicated to Mike Gwilym & the series producer) & he eventually followed that up with a couple more. I found out about this when someone linked me to book-fic with Charles, and I was just: ??? but this is pitch perfect JM, how did they do that without knowing? And the answer is that DF kept the casting for the books - he also tried to sand the novels into line with the TV series in Whip Hand, so it kind of follows on more from the TV version of OA than it does the original, and therefore Dick Francis and I do have one thing in common: we have both committed James Maxwell fanfic, lol. (I read Odds Against last and was startled by it having differences to the TV adaptation and the rest of the series.)
Anyway, Whip Hand has the most Sid/Charles and is therefore my favourite, and Come To Grief was also good, while the last one was much later and not so good, but it did contain one priceless moment when Sid takes his new fiancee home to meet Charles and then gets jealous that they get on so well, because Charles is HIS OMG.