Risk

Harper, 1977

• Roland Britten - 31, accountant, part-time amateur steeplechase jockey
• Mr. Wells - having financial problems, client of King and Britten
• Trevor King - Roland's senior partner
• Peter & Debbie - assistants at King and Britten
• Binny Tomkins - Tapestry's trainer
• Moira Longerman - Tapestry's owner
• Connaught Powys - went to jail because of Roland
• Hilary Margaret Pinlock - headmistress of a girls-only comrehensive
• Mrs. Morris - Roland's neighbor
• Bess - typist at King and Britten
• Denby Crest - solicitor
• Jossie Finch
• William Finch - Jossie's dad, trainer at the Axwood Stables
• Vivian Iverson - runs a gambling club in London
• Glitberg - went to jail because of Roland
• Onslow - went to jail because of Roland
• Naylor Nantucket - American tycoon who fell in love with English racing and built the Axwood Stables
• Christabel Saffray Finch - anthropologist, Jossie's mom
• Sandy - Finch's ever-sick secretary
• Lida Swann - Finch's girlfriend
• Sticks Elroy - jockey, one of Roland's clients
• Alastair Yardley - sails boats around for their owners
• Johnny Frederick - Roland's friend growing up, owns a boatyard
• "Arthur Robinson" - owner of the boat where Roland was kept captive

We need to start keeping a list of all the books with the phrase, "come to grief." Seems like Dick Francis loves to use it! :) Jossie asks Roland toward the end of the book: "Is Moira right? Did Binny rig it for you to come to grief?"

My favorite quote in Risk is right after Roland won the Oasthouse Cup on Tapestry and is thinking about how much he loves winning. This must have been how Dick Francis himself felt after a win: "It was fabulous, I thought dazedly; fantastic, winning another big race. More than I'd ever reckoned possible. A bursting delight like no other on earth...I'd never be able to give it up, I thought. I'd still be struggling round in the mud and rain at fifty, chasing the marvelous dream. Addiction wasn't only a matter of needles in the arm."

Other book titles in the text: Straight, Nerve, Risk, Bolt, (The) Danger, Come to Grief

We discussed Risk on September 8, 1997. Members can find the meeting logs in our reading group folder on AOL or at our Internet Members area.