Former British champion jumps jockey and bestselling author drops in for taste of racing-mad Hong Kong

Dick Francis is the kind of clipped, neat and pleasant chap one might expect to step out of one of his books. In the comfort of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel suite, he all but apologises for not wearing his jacket.

A champion British jumps jockey, he retired in 1957 on doctor's advice and took up writing. First a small series of feature articles, then a column with the London Sunday Express (which continued for 16 years), then his autobiography, and finally crime thrillers with a horseracing flavour. Now, after 40 years, 39 novels and two biographies, and more than 60 million books sold in 34 languages, Richard Stanley Francis is bowing out with Shattered - researched with but published without his late wife, Mary.

At 81, Francis has weathered well despite a jumps jockey's inevitable falls. 'I have a little arthritis in my feet which gives me problems sometimes but where I live in the Cayman Islands I can walk on the beach in the mornings and the water is lovely and warm,' he smiles. Such are the simple pleasures afforded by the success Francis has enjoyed.

'But I do miss Mary terribly. She wasn't horse-minded at all. When I was riding, the other jockeys' wives thought it was very funny that Mary sat reading a book and only came to drive me home if I got hurt. We had already decided that Shattered would be my last book, then she died suddenly last year. Mary was my co-researcher - she had a better education than I did, degrees in French and English - and she was my only editor. I always wanted her name on the dust jacket but she said the sales would be better with just my name.'

In 1999, journalist Graham Lord claimed that Mary had in fact written all the books under her husband's name. Francis still bridles at the memory. 'I had known him when we worked on the paper, and he asked if he could write my biography and I said no. Next thing, he'd gone and done it anyway and it was inaccurate all the way through.'

Perhaps Francis' most famous book was his 1986 biography of champion jockey Lester Piggott, with whom he caught up during Melbourne Cup week this year. 'We are great friends but writing his biography was difficult since Lester and his wife Susan always had different recollections of what happened, and because Lester cannot really converse well. I remember when I was close to finishing it, saying 'I know your favourite of nine Epsom Derby winners was Sir Ivor, so tell me all about him'. And Lester thought for quite a while, then said 'Hmmm. Nice horse'. That was it, so I had to make up all these things about the horse.'

In Francis' thrillers, though his evildoers kill, steal, dope and even kidnap to achieve nefarious ends, betting is not often a factor. 'There's not a lot of gambling because I am not a gambler, never was,' Francis says. 'When I was riding, I thought it was hard enough to make a living without giving it back to the bookmakers. I also like to think my books are bought by people with no interest in racing.'