Transport and Travel -  HORSE FLOAT DRIVER 

Driving Force - What next?

 Middle 

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy

1. "Driving Force" is a novel by ex-Jockey Dick Francis. You are going to continue writing in the vein of Francis after reading the short start.

Here is the synopsis: "Transporting racehorses is big business for ex-jockey Freddie Croft. But when one of his drivers breaks a cardinal rule--never pick up a hitchhiker--the results are fatal. Now strange nighttime stalkers and unseen conspirators are weaving a web of deceit and danger that Freddie might never escape."

Here is the start to this novel:

Chapter 1

"I had told the drivers [horse float drivers] never on any account to pick up a hitchhiker but of course one day they did, and by the time they reached my house he was dead.
The bell by the back door rang as I was heating up left-over beef stew for a fairly boring supper, consequence of living alone, and with barely a sigh and no premonition I switched off the hotplate, put the saucepan to one side and went to see who had come. Friends tended to enter at once while yelling my name, as the door was seldom locked. Employees mostly knocked first and entered next, still with little ceremony. Only strangers rang the bell and waited.
This time it was different. This time when I opened the door the light from inside the house fell yellowly on the stretched scared eyes of two of the men who worked for me, who stood uncomfortably on the doormat shifting from foot to foot, agonisedly and obviously expectant of wrath to come.

My own response to these clear signals of disaster was the familiar adrenaline rush of alarm that no amount of dealing with earlier crises could prevent. The old pump quickened. My voice came out high.
'What's the matter?' I said. 'What happened?'
I glanced over their shoulders. The bulk of one of the two largest in my fleet of horseboxes stood reassuringly in the shadows out on the tarmacked parking area, the house lights raising gleams along its silvery flank. At least they hadn't run it into a ditch: at least they'd brought it home. All else had to be secondary.

'Look, Freddie,' Dave Yates said, a defensive whine developing, 'it's not our fault.'
'What isn't?'
'This four-eyes we picked up...'
'You what?'
The younger one said, 'I told you we shouldn't, Dave.'
In him the anxiety whine was already full-blown, since wriggling out of blame was his familiar habit. He, Brett Gardner, already on my list for the chop, had been hired for his muscles and his mechanical know-how, the whinging nature at first unsuspected. His three months' trial was almost up, and I wouldn't be making him permanent.
He as a competent watchful driver. I'd trusted him from the start with my biggest and most expensive wagons but I'd had requests from several good customers not to send him to transport their horses to the races, as he tended to sow his dissatisfactions like a virus. Stable lads travelling with him went home incubating grouses, to their employers' irritation.
'It wasn't as if we had any horses on board,' Dave Yates was saying, trying to placate. 'Just Brett and me.'
I'd told all the drivers over and over that picking up hitchhikers while there were horses on board invalidated the insurance. I told them I'd sack any of them instantly if they did that. I'd also told them never, ever, to give any lifts at all to anyone, even if they knew the lift-begger personally. No, Freddie, of course not, they'd said seriously; and now I wondered just how often they'd disobeyed me.
'What about the four-eyes?' I said, my annoyance obvious. 'What's actually the matter?'
Dave said desperately, 'He's dead.'
'You...stupid...' Words failed me, drowned in anger. I could have hit him, and no doubt he saw it, backing away instinctively, fright rising. All sorts of presented themselves in rapid succession, none of them promising anything but trouble and lawsuits."

2. You are to write 3 more paragraphs in the vein of Dick Francis to continue the story. This means you are to adopt his descriptive style.

First, storyboard your ideas using one of the websites listed.

3. Use the following image to help you visualise the setting:

Zara Phillips' lorry (Zara is the grand-daughter of the Queen of England)
(Source: Daily Mail UK)

4. What is your plot? Are there any more characters present?

5. Write up your story and share with the class.

6. If you would like to see what happens next in the novel, go to Amazon and "Look inside" the cover of the book to read the first and second chapters!