Wilbur Smith
Wilbur Smith
Wilbur Addison Smithis a South African novelist specialising in historical fiction about the international involvement in Southern Africa across three centuries, seen from the viewpoints of both black and white families...
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth9 January 1933
CityKabwe, Zambia
casey gun people unlike within
It was because of Casey they got the gun within 24 hours. Casimiro Rodriguez, unlike the other people involved, was remorseful.
death died gods good monster novel words wrote
The first novel I wrote was a monster - clocking in at 180,000 words - but it died a death, a death it deserved. It was called 'The Gods First Make Mad.' It was a good title, but it was the only good thing about the book. I didn't let that put me off.
kings boys men
A man follows the path laid out for him. He does his duty to God and his King. He does what he must do, not what pleases him. God's truth, boy, what kind of world would this be if every man did what pleased him alone? Who would plough the fields and reap the harvest, if every man had the right to say, 'I don't want to do that.' In this world there is a place for every man, but every man must know his place.
failure thumbs crowds
Failure makes success so much sweeter, and allows you to thumb your nose at the crowds.
philosophy long pay
They do say that socialism is the ideal philosophy-just as long as you have capitalists to pay for it.
writing giving godlike
What I like about writing is the sense of godlike power it gives you.
southern closets species
I am a closet birdwatcher. I can identify Southern African species, but it irks me I can barely tell a jay from a blackbird in the U.K.
father holiday pride
I shot my first lion at the age of 14 when a pride threatened my father's livestock while he was away on holiday.
inspiring mothers-day children
I'm not a good father and they're not children any more; the eldest is in his fifties. My relationship with their mothers broke down and, because of what the law was, they went with their mothers and were imbued with their mothers' morality in life and they were not my people any more.
country rich-countries white
A cynic had defined aid as simply the system by which poor white people in rich countries gave money to rich black people in poor countries to put into Swiss bank accounts.
country reality views
I'm not a prophet I can only use historical reality to come to a view of the future, and my view is that Africa will return to being African and not European. The advent of colonialism was foreign to the country itself, but it will return to what it was before the Europeans arrived.
rivers today fountainhead
History is a river that never ends. Today is history, and I am here at the fountainhead.
country boys opportunity
The really disturbing thing about Somalia is that in a country where there are few economic opportunities, pirates are perceived as glamorous and are held in awe by young boys who aspire to their lifestyle.
father air yards
My family wasn't terribly affluent and looked upon money very carefully as something that had to be saved, not spent. My father built the ducting that took air into the copper mines and made about 6 d a yard in the Thirties, which was good money back then.