I think I've only ever read two or three Dick Francis books. I couldn't stand them, and I must have been pretty hard up for something to read to have ever read them, but they seem to all have one thing in common that brings me back to them.
Dick Francis seems to hate his protagonists. Every one of his books that I read seems to have the main character get beaten up, tortured, or just generally shat all over. I find that that does the trick that all the flowery words or booker prizes in the world don't quite do for me.

I'm letting this one go in the very near future

Release planned for Sunday, February 01, 2004 at The Nag's Head Pub in Walthamstow, London, England United Kingdom.

leaving this in the Nag's Head over the weekend

Have already read this ages ago... Good, solid read but nothing to write home about ;-)

Terribly ashamed - caught this book a long while ago in Walthamstow (yep, must be about 2 years ago) thanks to Estherase (they have a good Hoegaarden in the Nag's Head) but forgot to log it - now, after moving, finding also Librarything and rummaging through my books, I found your book back. Still keeping it for a while, it smells so nice and old :)