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
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.
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.
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.
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.
rivers today fountainhead
History is a river that never ends. Today is history, and I am here at the fountainhead.
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.
father hero boys
Herbert, my father, was born in Britain but went out to Africa in his teens to join his father and built up an 18,000-acre ranch in what was then Northern Rhodesia, providing work for the locals. He was my hero when I was a boy.
loneliness unrequited-love thinking
I think one of the most poignant things is unrequited love and loneliness.
hate ignorant involved last people politics time waste
I hate politics. I like to write about it, but to get involved in it, to try and make a lot of ignorant people do what you want them to do, waste of time. Go and write a book. It's more important and it'll last longer.
admire bit enormous pleasure sit work
I still get enormous pleasure and a sense of fulfillment out of writing a book that I'm proud of. I see myself as a bit like a jewel-maker who can sit back and admire his work.