Main Character

Tempted by Randall Drew, gentleman

Where's Gerard Logan, glass blower?

oh bugger i missed some off the bottom :(

will poll them all again when this one finishes :)

some of these names are great

Edward Lincoln, movie actor who does his own stunts

Matt Shore, former airline pilot now flying charter.

Sounds like a right boring bastard

Andrew Douglas, anti-kidnapping consultant

Lester Piggott! How does he think up these outlandish names.

that's the joy of the names, they are all perfectly beige except for Lester obv

And Tim Ekaterin. Exotic.

Roland Britten, accountant

That's got the pulse quickening

was in love with k3lly hughes when i was 14 so him/her

didn't realise u had out transsexuals in Ireland back then

The ones chopped off have a strange dull poetry about them:

Perry Stuart, meteorologist
Gerard Logan, glass blower
Sid Halley, investigator
Max Moreton, chef
Geoffrey Mason
Ned Talbot, bookmaker

Sid Halley! There's a name for an English gumshoe if ever I heard one.

Geoffrey Mason, barrister, of course. Need one of those two-column foreign language exercises. Match the name up with the profession.

those late ones were written in the 21st century which kinda undermines the verisimilitude of the names i think

You could be right. You can see the influence of his son there as well.

Felix is probably just recycling stuff from his dad's early books and Dick doesn't remember them

Andrew Douglas, anti-kidnapping consultant

Pretty sure Perry Stuart, meteorologist, would work for Positive Weather Solutions.

Jonathan Derry, teacher
William Derry, jockey & later racing manager

Anyone know what happened there?

Max Moreton, chef.

ffs.

I seem to remember Dick Francis justified that anti-kidnapping consultant role wrt kidnapping being an international industry so it's not unreasonable to have a one-man freelance advisor on it.

Steven Scott, toy inventor

^ would love to know how this guy got tangled up in the murky world of race fixing

Read High Stakes and find out!

Jonathan Derry, teacher
William Derry, jockey & later racing manager

Anyone know what happened there?

apparently jonathan narrates the first section and his younger brother william narrates the second section but i don't think i'll be reading it to find out wha'appen. could ask my dad but he's just as likely to not remember.

Steven Scott

At age fifteen he invented and patented a revolutionary toy, the licensing of which has made him very rich. In his early thirties became interested in owning racehorses and used the services of the trainer, Jody Leeds, for his expanding string of both flat and jump horses who currently has nine of them in his stable. He meets Alexandra Ward, an American on holiday in London, with whom he forms a romantic attachment.

^ okay I hate this bastard

Toy was My Little Pony

Neil Griffon: Derek my good man, i used to buy and sell antiques. maybe I can offer you some expert business advice.

Derek Franklin: Nah, sokay, i learnt all i needed to know about jewellery when i was riding horses.

Randall Drew: Now look here chaps, i'm a gentleman, what.

Derek Franklin: Shut it you clown.

Randall Drew: The outrage! we will settle this...by racing horses. Neil, I will need your able assistance with this.

Neil Griffon: Well, my dad is in the hospital again so i've got some time on my hands.

Derek Franklin: Aw fuck you Griffon. You two are dead.

John Kendall: Well, not necessarily. Here's my book.

Derek Franklin: Kendall!

Tony Beach

Grandson of a Colonel who won the Victoria Cross in the First World War and, as an amateur rider, came second in the Grand National; son of a Colonel who won the Distinguished Service Order in the Second World War, was a renowned amateur rider and was killed in a fall at Sandown Park in a steeplechase, watched by his son. Went to Wellington but not on to Sandhurst. Believed not to have inherited the family courage. He is a wine merchant who is in mourning for his wife Emma. She died in childbirth six months before. He misses her deeply, and is lonely and depressed. He has a talent for telling one wine or whisky from another simply by smelling and tasting them. His talent comes in very useful when a local restaurant owner appears to be passing off cheap wine and Scotch as expensive brands.

Freddie Croft, trucking company owner
Alexander Kinloch, painter

I can identify with this Tony Beach guy:

Believed not to have inherited the family courage - check
is lonely and depressed - check
has a talent for telling one wine or whisky from another each other simply by smelling and tasting them - check

Randall Drew

Trial Run jacketA highly successful amateur steeplechase jockey who has recently retired from racing to his farm in Warwickshire. He is no longer able to race due to his poor eyesight and the rules which preclude his wearing glasses while he races. Unable to wear contact lenses, he gives up racing to run his farm. He also has chronic respiratory problems which make him prey to bronchial infections. Most of the time, however, he is able to control these problems with medication. Because of his aristocratic connections and his knowledge of the racing world, he is selected to carry out a sensitive mission in Russia involving the fate of a young British aristocrat who hopes to make the British Olympic team for the Moscow Games in 1980.

Robert Finn

Robert Finn watches a fellow jockey blow his brains out soon after a race. As Finn and the other jockeys cope with the stress of their jobs, other incidents lead Finn to conclude that someone is trying to destroy the lives of jockeys all over England. Finn is not your average jockey, though. The only child of famous virtuoso musicians, in a family of virtuosos, he has not followed the family traditions. But he inherited other skills that now give him the skills to follow a sad and warped trail.

But he inherited other skills that now give him the skills to follow a sad and warped trail.

:O

Main character in the novel Blood Sausage iirc

surely wd be titled Blind Pudding in the UK

Album not helped at the time by having the worst title for a Fall release to date

Oops wrong thread. "Wrong Thread", a dark thriller set in the world internet forums.

Tom. D inherited other skills that now give him the skills to follow a sad and warped trail.

But he inherited other skills that now give him the skills to follow a sad and warped trail.

Excessive use of the whip perhaps?

Dunno if Mark E Smith's a racing fan, but I saw him going into a bookies in Salford once. And that was in the days before you could put a bet on the half-time score between Blyth Spartans and Stalybridge Celtic and all that nonsense.

I think he's got enough vices to be going on with

Silk Cut Ah

Mark Smith – Singer

Mark Smith, grandson of Charles I and the Great God Pan, is a singer who loses his voice in a freak accident with a tune and finds himself earning a living making very minute lolly on the racecourse cabaret circuit. After a badly received show at Lingfield he meets a glamorous blonde American named Brix and gets drawn into a shadowy world of racing silk manufacture and meets the sinister underworld nobbler Gok Wan. Smith solves the crime by sacking everyone in the racing industry and ends up marrying a sweet violinist from Ffos Las called Nigel.

Lester Piggott. Being unattached to an occupation, profession or honorific title, he embodies a world of possibility I can only dream about.

Got there via tax evasion iirc.

I know a dude named Dave Cleveland

don't know what a bloodstock agent is, sounds pretty \m/, rly.

Bloodstock is the annual Bad Manners reunion gig.

Steven Scott, toy inventor 0

shame

ok reading this thread actually IS like the simpsons jockeys-are-elves sequence :0

Edward Lincoln would've gotten a vote as plain "Ed Lincoln" imo

A name and an occupation do not constitute "a character".

These should be added to the list:

Captain Tom Forsyth, military officer
Nicholas "Foxy" Foxton, financial adviser
Mark Shillington, racing commentator
Jeff Hinkley, BHA investigator

Also, apparently Sid Halley is a former private investigator now.

i should poll the revised list