The author has done supremely well in the mystery category with books like Flying Finish. Blood Sport etc., and if those had an authentic air, this is the reason. It's the autobiography of a man who was stable-ized right from the start and ended wearing the Queen's silks in the Grand National steeplechase that was to become a National disaster. Both his grandfather and father were jockeys and superb trainers but it took Dick until the late age of twenty-five to get into his first race. This is a history of an era of hunts and shows and triumph and broken bones with wonderful detail from the weighing room with its attendant valets to the winners circle with its saliva tests for drugs. Mr. Francis takes you right into the jump with insiders' information on everything from courses to the horse's conformation. Then there's that climactic moment at the National with Francis on the Irish thoroughbred Devon Loch way ahead with fifty yards to the finish and the Queen Mother waiting for the triumph... and Devon Loch sits down... Previously dubbed "the man who didn't win the Grand National," Mr. Francis may change his epitaph — to "the bloke who writes those bloody good books.
Pub Date: Feb. 26, 1969
ISBN: 0330339028
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1969
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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