Wilbur Smith

Wilbur Smith is one of the world’s most prolific and skilled storytellers, having written 32 bestselling novels.

While Wilbur is probably best-known for his African and Egyptian series, one of his most recent novel, THOSE IN PERIL, is a fast-paced, contemporary thriller set in the Indian Ocean where a group of pirates kidnap the 19-year-old daughter of a multi-millionaire oil mogul and post a 20 billion-dollar ransom for her release.

Taking the advice of his literary agent “to write about what you know best”, Wilbur brings authenticity and a wealth of life and travel experiences to each and every one of his novels.

Wilbur was born in Central Africa in 1933. He was educated at Michaelhouse and Rhodes University. He became a full-time writer in 1964 after the successful publication of WHEN THE LION FEEDS, and has since written nearly thirty novels, all meticulously researched on his numerous expeditions worldwide. His books are now translated into twenty-six languages.

Wilbur lives in London and continues to have an abiding concern for the peoples and wildlife of his native continent, an interest strongly reflected in his novels.

He loves reading, fly fishing, travelling and exploring the world and being in the African bush.

Photo credit: Joe Partridge

Lived: 1933 -

Author Of

The Seventh Scroll

The seventh scroll is nearly 4000 years old. Within it lie the clues to a fabulous treasure from an almost forgotten time. Duraid Al Simmu and his wife, Royan, discovered the scroll and made research notes on it. But Duraid is murdered, and Royan has to flee to England to seek refuge.

Warlock

This Egyptian epic follows Taita as he retreats into the forbidding deserts of North Africa to become a hermit after his beloved Queen Lostris dies. Over the years he devotes himself to the study of the mysteries of the occult until he gradually transforms himself into the Warlock.

The Quest

Egypt is struck by a series of terrible plagues that cripple the Kingdom, and then the ultimate disaster follows–the Nile fails. The waters that nourish and sustain the land dry up. Something catastrophic is taking place in the distant and totally unexplored depths of Africa from where the mighty river springs. In desperation Pharaoh sends(…)

A Falcon Flies (Flight of the Falcon)

A thriller which tells of Zouga and Dr Robyn Ballantyne’s journey on board a clipper to Africa, where her aim is to bring hope and healing to the fever-ridden shores, while he is a lawless trader in human cargo.

Men of Men

A thriller set in the age of empire, battle and conquest, about a man whose dream begins in the danger and drudgery of the diamond pits and ends on the rich grasslands of Matabeleland, but not before a king and proud warrior nation have paid the price of history.

The Angels Weep

The pioneers of Rhodesia have staked their claims and stocked their farms in the land they have carved as their own. But in the hills, the Matabele indunas are preparing for the bloody rebellion which will scar their opponents for ever – and etch for them the same legacy for generations to come.

The Leopard Hunts in Darkness

Exiled author, Craig Mellow returns to Zimbabwe when he is given a spying mission for the World Bank. Accompanied by photographer, Sally-Anne Jay, he stumbles upon an ivory-poaching operation which masks the treacherous plot to sell the country he once fought for into slavery.

When the Lion Feeds

WHEN THE LIONS FEEDS is the story of South Africa at the burgeoning time of the gold rush in the 1890s. Sean Courtney was raised in cattle country, accidently maimed his twin brother Garry as a boy. In inflicting weakness, Sean came to despise weakness in all. This, plus his own strength, was to dictate(…)

The Sound of Thunder (The Roar of Thunder)

Sean Courtney, the impulsive adventurer, returns from the wilderness a rich man, until he is robbed by the Boers. A grim homecoming finds his country in the grip of war, but conflicts within the family will prove far more bitter than any fought on the veld.

A Sparrow Falls

From the trenches of France, General Sean Courtney comes back to fame, fortune and a seat in the Government. Mark Anders, the courageous young South African whom he has come to regard as his own son, returns to nothing, his grandfather murdered, his property seized by an unknown company. At the bottom of the mystery(…)

The Burning Shore

A novel in which a passionate affair between a French aristocrat and Michael Courtney forces her to set out and seek a future for their unborn child in Africa, but first she must brave the terrors of war, shipwreck, fever and the vastness of Namibia before finding a home.

The Power of the Sword

In the harsh and beautiful land of South Africa, races clash in an unequal struggle for justice that divides a family and inflames a whole continent. Manfred De La Rey, hard and lean as a desert lion, allows a blind, raging anger to catapult him to a dangerous success. While Shasa Courtney, his brother, strives(…)

Rage

Its 1952. Bitterly divided by the struggles of their native land, the Courtney family empire has come to dominate the lives of all South Africans, white and black alike. But revolution is in the air and Shasa Courtney finds he must choose between his ideals and the quest for power.

Golden Fox

In the heat of a divided Africa two decades of dynastic conflict explode with terrifying ferocity. Only Isabella Courteney stands between her two brothers and the mutual destruction they have willed for so long.

A Time to Die

As the world around him burns with passion and death, professional hunter and guerrilla fighter Sean Courtney is trapped between his worst enemies, an overwhelming love for a woman, and his instincts to survive — and kill.

Birds of Prey

It is 1667 and Sir Francis Courteney and his son Henry “Hal” Courteney are on patrol in their fighting caravel off the Agulhas Cape of Southern Africa. They have a letter from Charles II sanctioning them to hunt down and capture enemy ships “beyond the line”.

The Monsoon

Monsoon, set in the dawn of the 18th century in England, East Africa and Arabia, takes over where “Birds of Prey” left off and follows the lives of the three sons of Hal Courteney.

Blue Horizon

Tom Courtney and his brother Dorian battled on the high seas and finally reached the Cape of Good Hope to start life afresh. In this spellbinding new novel, the next generation of Courtneys are out to stake their claim in Southern Africa, travelling along the infamous ‘Robber’s Road’. It is a journey both exciting and(…)

The Triumph of the Sun

1884 and in Khartoum, on the banks of the Nile, the Courtneys meet the Ballantynes in this epic adventure from one of the world’s most celebrated novelists In the Sudan, decades of brutal misgovernment by the ruling Egyptian Khedive in Cairo precipitate a fierce and bloody rebellion and Holy War headed by a charismatic new(…)

Assegai

It is 1913 and ex-soldier turned professional big game hunter, Leon Courtney, is in British East Africa guiding rich and powerful men from America and Europe on safaris in the Masai tribe territories. One of his clients, German industrialist Count Otto Von Meerbach, has a company which builds aircraft and vehicles for the Kaiser’s burgeoning(…)

Eagle in the Sky

A thriller which combines both combat action and romance to tell the story of a rich jet fighter pilot, who becomes involved in Israel’s war for national survival, after he falls in love with a beautiful Israeli writer.

Elephant Song

From the peaks of Ethiopia’s Mountains of the Moon and the deep forests where the Nile rises, to the teeming streets of Taiwan and London’s city boardrooms, a man and woman fight against the forces of greed, evil and corruption to save a people and a habitat from extinction.

Hungry as the Sea

Through shipwreck and hurricane, in the ice of the Antarctic to the coast of Africa, Nick Berg is a man fighting back against the ruthless ambition of an arch-rival who stole his wife and son and robbed him of an empire.

Shout at the Devil

They were the most unlikely alliance East Africa had ever seen: O’Flynn and Oldsmith, the legendary gin-swilling elephant poacher and the overgrown schoolboy. Together they braved the terrors of savage Mozambique to make a private paradise, fighting only for family and fortune in the days before World War I. But when Germany’s shadow fell across(…)

Cry Wolf

The year is 1935, shortly before World War II. The “Wolf of Rome,” Italy’s army under Mussolini is poised to invade Ethiopia, whose army is not only ill-equipped, but also severely outnumbered. Desperate to save his troubled land, Emperor Haile Selassie enlists American Jake Barton and Englishman Gareth Swales, two risk-takers who both share a(…)

Gold Mine (Gold)

Your unquestioning obedience. You will be my man.’ Such is Manfred’s demand when he offers Rod Ironsides the general managership of the Sonder Ditch gold mine. For Rod, ambitious and hard-living but totally gripped by the life of the mine, it is the chance of a lifetime. Manfred Steyner is neurotic and ruthless, a compulsive(…)

The Dark of the Sun

Bruce Curry is the leader of a mercenary band with the dubious support of three white officers. His mission is to relieve a mining town cut off by the fighting and retrieve a consignment of diamonds. Ranged against his men are bandits and guerrillas. A deadlier enemy is one of his own men.

The Diamond Hunters

A novel in which a man named Benedict inherits the family diamond company when his father dies, but part of the bequest is that he should destroy Johnny, his own foster brother. When Benedict sets out to fulfil his duty, Johnny finds himself surrounded by greed, vengeance and murder.

The Eye of the Tiger

THE DEEP. THE DEADLY. THE DAMNED… For a thousand years, an unimaginable treasure has rested on the bottom of the Indian Ocean, hidden by swift blue currents, guarded by deadly coral reefs, and even deadlier schools of man-eating great white sharks. Harry Fletcher, a former soldier turned fisherman, is now being pulled into a murderous(…)

The Sunbird

A photograph and a curse are the only clues Dr Ben Kazin has before he stumbles on the archaeological discovery. Beneath the red cliffs of Botswanaland a civilization has remained buried for millennia. But the magic of uncovering a lost culture is interrupted by the violence of terrorists, love, intrigue and the secrets of centuries.

Wild Justice (The Delta Decision)

The hijacking of a jumbo jet off the Seychelles galvanizes anti-terrorist chief Peter Stride into the action for which he has spent a lifetime training. But even in the hail of bullets which follows, he knows this is the beginning of a nightmare.

Vicious Circle

SYNOPSIS NOT AVAILABLE YET. BOOK DUE OUT IN OCTOBER 2013

Those in Peril

Hazel Bannock is heir to the Bannock Oil Corporation, one of the major global oil producers. While cruising the Indian Ocean, her yacht is hijacked by Somalian pirates and her nineteen-year-old daughter, Cayla, kidnapped. The pirates demand a crippling twenty-billion-dollar ransom for her release, and complicated political and diplomatic sensitivities render the major powers incapable(…)

River God

City of Thebes. The Festival of Osiris. Loyal subjects of the Pharaoh gather to pay homage to their leader, but Taita – a wise and formidably gifted eunuch slave – sees him only as a symbol of a kingdom’s fading glory.

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