A Horse Racing Drama of Risk and Escape.NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995:When twenty-three-year-old Andy Cooper returns home from Wembley with his dad, he discovers that his mum has died suddenly. In the aftermath, grief gives way to blame and Andy becomes the target.As his dad retreats into drink and their home life deteriorates, Andy is left isolated and searching for a way forward.A chance encounter in his local betting shop offers an unexpected...

There once was a magical place called WriterL where hundreds of journalists, freelancers, editors and educators from around the world gathered to share their thoughts and insights about the craft of Literary Journalism. It was the kind of place that an article in The New York Times referred to as "the Paris of the 1920s" for nonfiction writers.But this place existed only on the internet, on a site founded in 1994 and hosted by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Franklin and his wif...

A Horse Racing Story of Hope, Resilience and Second Chances.Nottinghamshire, 1996:As Andy Cooper begins to rebuild his life, the focus shifts away from the betting shop on Manvers Road to Colwick Park, Nottingham's racecourse, where a bold idea is born.Using money from a significant winning bet placed by his late dad, Andy buys a racehorse and shares ownership with the friends who stood by him during his darkest days.They name the horse ...

Of all the things hidden in plain sight, dogs are one of the most enigmatic. They are everywhere, but how much do we really know about where they came from and what the implications are of their place in our world? Jon Franklin set out to find out and ended up spending a decade studying the origins and significance of the dog and its peculiar attachment to humans. As the intellectual pursuit of his subject began to take over Franklin's life, he married a dog lover and was quickly introduce...