Wilbur Smith
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Wilbur Addison Smith (b. January 9, 1933) is an author of fiction.
He was born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and educated at Cordwalles Preparatory School, Michaelhouse and Rhodes University. His novels are primarily set in Africa. He wrote his first novel (When the Lion Feeds) whilst working for Salisbury [incorrect link - refer "Harare"]Inland Revenue. The success that it achieved encouraged him to become a full-time writer. Smith now lives in London, but avows an abiding concern for the peoples and wildlife of his native continent.
In 2002, Wilbur Smith was granted the Inaugural Sport Shooting Ambassador Award by the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities.
Books by Smith often fall into one of three series, which reflect either the families that the book features, or the timeframe it is set in.
Contents |
[edit] The Courtney Series
The Courtney series can be split into three parts, each part following a particular era of the Courtney family.
[edit] The First Sequence
The first sequence follows the life of Sean Courtney. Sean and Garrick Courtney are twins who couldn't be more different. The jealous schemes of a woman draw them apart as the nation prepares for war against the Zulu. Sean, believed dead, returns home to find that Garrick has married his girlfriend and has brought up his son Michael as his own.
Sean places himself in self-exile and wanders the African plains searching for fame. He meets and befriends Duff and they start a gold-mining business together which makes them rich. They lose their money to a shady deal and travel the wilderness together where Duff dies after an attack by a rabid Jackel. Sean eventually meets a Boer family and marries the daughter. She becomes ill and commits suicide at the end of the book but not before giving birth to a boy, Dirk.
The Sound of Thunder is set several years after the first book. Sean and his son Dirk finally leave the wilderness and discover that a war is brewing between the English and the Boers. He meets and falls in love with a woman called Ruth and they conceive a daughter during a thunderstorm. Ruth runs away to return to her husband who is a soldier in the Boer War. Later, Sean wins many victories in the war and befriends Saul, Ruth’s husband. The commander of the Boers is none other than Sean’s old brother-in-law, Jan Paulus Leroux. They fight but decide to leave each other alone. Saul is killed in battle and Sean, although guilty, finds Ruth and marries her. Sean’s daughter, named Storm, grows to be pretty and bright but Sean’s first-born, Dirk has become evil with jealousy for his father’s attention. The book ends with Sean’s brother Garrick forgiving him and Dirk running away, promising to ruin the Courtneys.
A Sparrow Falls is the concluding part of Sean Courtney's life story. It begins with a young soldier named Mark Anders being sent out to destroy a German sniper in the First World War. Sean admires him and offers him a job. Mark returns home to find his land taken and his grandfather murdered. He makes an investigation and discovers that Dirk Courtney is trying to build a dam in his land. Father and son clash and Dirk swears to kill Sean. Mark falls in love with Sean’s daughter, Storm, and South Africa moves towards a tumultuous civil war. In the climax of the book, Dirk brutally kills Sean and Ruth but is then killed by Mark. Mark regains his land and becomes the warden and lives with Storm in relative happiness.
The original Courtney trilogy has a power and historical content that few books can claim. Covering a period of South African history from before the Zulu Wars to the establishment of the Union of South Africa makes the books a very interesting mirror of the period. Wilbur Smith drives his characters through this period of history with a multitude of side plots, effective characters both minor and major, brutal violence and the inclusion of the most human situations that every reader can relate to.
[edit] The Second Sequence
The second sequence of Courtney novels begins with The Burning Shore. It follows Michael, the first-born, illegitimate son of Sean Courtney and his exploits as a pilot during World War I in Europe. Michael dies but he has impregnated Centaine de Thiry, who leaves for South Africa to seek her unborn child's patrilineal family. She ends up in South West Africa after being shipwrecked but eventually finds her way to South Africa with the help of bushmen. She gets pregnant by another man and hides that pregnancy but also discovers and claims a diamond mine in South West Africa.
The second sequence continues through four more books following the exploits of the Courtneys:
Power of the Sword focuses on the lives of two of Centaine de Thiry Courtney's sons — Shasa Courtney and Manfred De La Rey — caught up in South Africa's history through almost two decades. The two are unaware that they are half-brothers and are on opposite sides of South Africa's white community.
In Rage the enmity between Shasa and Manfred explodes as they fight over South Africa's future. Meanwhile, the Black population's rage is fuelled by opposition to apartheid, as they take more radical steps to fight for their rights. The novel covers the years from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s.
Golden Fox focuses on Isabella Courtney and her adventures as she is drawn into a KGB plot that involves her giving birth to a son, Nicholas, who is used as bait. The boy's father is the Golden Fox of the title, a top Soviet agent and professional assassin.
A Time To Die is focused on Sean Courtney, a veteran of the Rhodesian anti-guerilla war who has turned into a professional hunter. A new war raging in Mozambique draws him in and he becomes the captive of a former Zimbabwean freedom fighter. He is then forced to steal helicopters from the Zimbabwean air force in order to free his lover. His escape from captivity turns him into the quarry of two armies as he flees towards South Africa.
[edit] The Third Sequence
The third sequence is set between the late-1600s and the mid-1700s, each book laying focus on succeeding generations of the Courtneys.
Birds of Prey begins with the Anglo-Dutch naval war drawing to a close. Sir Francis Courtney, Master Navigator of the Order of St George and The Holy Grail and his son, Henry (Hal) sail off the coast of southern Africa waiting for a Dutch galleon which they soon take over. Francis is betrayed by a brother knight, and they are captured and imprisoned by the Dutch. Sir Francis is publicly executed in front of Hal. The rest of the crew escape after a year of hard labour and make Hal their captain and he sets off to avenge his father's death. Along the way he must deal with dangers such as war and women. By the end of the book, he becomes a Knight and a Privateer and assists the ruler of Ethiopia, Prester John in repelling Arab invaders.
Monsoon follows the adventures of Hal’s sons, William, Tom, Guy and Dorian. An Arab Corsair is ambushing merchant and war ships in the Indian Ocean and the English send Hal to contest him. The twin brothers, Tom and Guy, fall out over a woman and Guy leaves for India while William remains home in England. Dorian is captured by slavers and sold to the Caliph of Oman, al-Malik who adopts him as his son. There he meets Yasmini, one of the many daughters of the Caliph. They fall in love and Dorian saves her from Zayn al-Din, another of the Caliph's sons. Eventually Dorian (known as al-Salil) and Yasmini run away, damned for committing incest. Many years of searching leave Tom tired of battle but by chance he faces Dorian in battle and almost kills him. Recognizing each other, they reunite and escape to Africa.
Blue Horizon follows the adventures of Tom’s son Jim, and Dorian’s son, Mansur. Living in the Cape of Good Hope, Jim rescues Louisa, a prisoner from the Dutch who he falls in love with and together they escape across Africa while being pursued by the Dutch East India Company. Meanwhile, Tom, Dorian and their entourage escape Good Hope to avoid retribution from the Dutch for Jim’s escape. Once escaped they settle, where Dorian's wife Yasmini is assassinated and this leads to him reclaiming his place as Caliph of Oman with Mansur by his side. They fight in a civil war against Zayn al-Din, who took the throne after al-Malik's death and ruled with an iron fist.
Triumph of the Sun the fourth book of this sequence is out now in the US and UK. 'It is 1884, and in the Sudan, decades of brutal misgovernment by the ruling Egyptian Khedive in Cairo precipitates a bloody rebellion and Holy War. The charismatic new religious leader, the Mahdi or "Expected One," has gathered his forces of Arab warlords in preparation for a siege on the city of Khartoum. The British are forced to intervene to protect their national interests and to attempt to rescue the hundreds of British subjects stranded in the city. British trader and businessman Ryder Courtney is trapped in the capital city of Khartoum under the orders of the infamously iron-willed General Charles George Gordon. It is here that he meets skilled soldier and swordsman Captain Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars and the British Consul, David Benbrook, as well as Benbrook’s three beautiful daughters. Against the vivid and bloody backdrop of the Arabs’ fierce and merciless siege these three powerful men must fight to survive. Rich with vibrant historical detail and infused with his inimitable powers of storytelling, The Triumph of the Sun is Wilbur Smith at his masterful best.' (Appraisal of Triumph of the Sun www.WilburSmithbooks.com)
[edit] The Ballantyne Series
[edit] A Falcon Flies
In 1860 the slave trade is still flourishing in southern Africa. Ballantyne, a famous missionary and explorer, has disappeared in the wild areas of the sub-continent. His two children, Robyn (a daughter) and Zouga (a son) set out on an expedition to find their father. She is determined to bring Christianity, medicine and commerce to the Africans, but he wants to seek his fortune. They get passage on a clipper from England, only to discover that the captain, Mungo St John, is a slaver. She falls in love with him but is determined to fight his trade in human flesh. She gets the support of a naval captain, Clinton Codrington, who is himself a fanatical anti-slave trader. He falls in love with her.
Zouga goes hunting for ivory and gold. In his travels he comes across a secret cavern of an African oracle and steals a soapstone falcon figure from the ruins of an ancient city. Unwittingly, he is fulfilling a prophecy which states that loss of the stone falcons shall bring desolation to the people and the land.
As Robyn locates the slave traders' route, she almost becomes a victim of the slavers herself; she's saved in the nick of time by Mungo St John and has to accompany him on his ship. She makes a successful attempt to contact Clinton and eventually causes the sea battle between the two men who love her. St John is then tried for his crimes.
[edit] Men of Men
This is the second of the Ballantyne sequence of books, which gives a fictionalized account of the origins of Rhodesia and its later violent transformation into Zimbabwe. In this novel, the Ballantyne saga continues with the interaction between Zouga Ballantyne, Cecil Rhodes and the other whites who took over southern Africa. Zouga has now got a frail wife and two sons, Ralph and Jordan. He hopes to raise enough resources from the new diamond working in Kimberley. His wife dies but his sons thrive and grow into young men with differing personalities: Ralph becomes impetuous, determined and very loyal to his father; Jordan becomes as delicate as his mother and rises in the ranks of diamond sorters. Cecil Rhodes enters the tale and becomes Zouga's ally for some years, until Zouga makes a daring gamble and loses everything - his claim, his money and his sons.
A grown-up Ralph sets out to retrieve his father's stash of ivory, while Jordan becomes Rhodes' personal secretary. The labourers at the Kimberley diamond workings scatter and one of them, named Bazo, returns to his homeland in Matabeleland with illegally obtained diamonds. Rhodes uses his wealth obtained from Kimberley to open up the land north of the Limpopo River: he sponsors a "Pioneer" expedition and gives Zouga the task of negotiating with Lobengula, king of the Matabele people. Through machinations and betrayal, Rhodes annexes the land of the Matabele people and lays the foundation for the land that became Rhodesia. All the principal protagonists - Zouga, Ralph, Jordan, Robyn, Codrington, Mungo St John and Bazo - become inextricably bound up in the birth of the new country.
[edit] The Angels Weep
This is the third in the Ballantyne sequence of novels. It tells about how the Black Africans of Rhodesia tried to fight for their land but were defeated by the White settlers who were determined to carve out a homeland for themselves.
The Black Africans, after having been defeated in "Men of Men", now plan to rebel against the unwelcome White settlers. The Matabele rise and avenge their last defeat. They kill Mungo St John and Ralph's pregnant wife, Cathy. This breeds hatred in Ralph and he ruthlessly suppresses the Matabele uprising, killing his childhood friend Bazo in the process.
In the second part, the action moves fast forward to the 1970s as Rhodesia is caught up in a violent freedom struggle. The tactics of terror are employed by the freedom fighters, carrying firearms and operating in highly organised commando groups. Opposing them are the Rhodesian "Ballantyne Scouts", one of whose members is Roland Ballantyne, great-grandson of Ralph. His gentler cousin, Craig Mellow, is forced into a war where he has to clash with a childhood friend, Tungata, who is a descendant of Bazo. A trap is laid by Tungata for Roland, who is killed when he falls for it. Craig is crippled when he loses a leg. It takes a long time for Craig and his lover to find happiness.
[edit] The Leopard Hunts in Darkness
Following Rhodesia's independence (and its renaming as Zimbabwe), some white people left the country. One of those exiles is Craig Mellow, who now lives in New York. However, he misses his homeland, so he decides to return and buys back his family's farm. Within the country there is a re-emergence of ancient tribal rivalries, African pitted against African. The Matabele man named Tungata is now a government minister. Inadvertently Craig gets caught up in tribal politics. Fungabera, a Shona man, dupes Craig into framing Tungata for an ivory-poaching racket. Then Fungabera turns on Craig by accusing him of being a CIA agent and confiscating the farm he had bought.
When he realises that he has been used, Craig plots with Tungata's fiancee to free his erstwhile friend from a maximum security camp. They carry out the rescue and are chased by Shona soldiers. At last Fungabera is shown to be the head of the ivory-poaching ring. He is also discovered to be plotting an overthrow of the Zimbabwean government.
[edit] The Egyptian Series
[edit] River God
River God follows the fate of the Egyptian Kingdom through the eyes of Taita, a multi-talented and highly skilled eunuch slave. Taita is owned by Lord Intef and primarily looks after his daughter, Lostris, but also plays a large role in the day to day running of Lord Intef's estate.
The Pharaoh of Egypt is without a male heir, and Taita inadvertently causes Pharaoh to take an interest in Lostris. Lostris meanwhile is in love with the soldier Tanus, who unbeknownst to her is hated by her father. Eventually Pharaoh marries Lostris and Intef gives Taita to her as a wedding gift.
Meanwhile, Tanus has angered Pharaoh by speaking bluntly about the troubles Egypt is in - most prominently the growing bandit threat which terrorizes all who travel outside of the major cities. Pharaoh condemns him to death for his actions, but is convinced to allow Tanus to redeem himself by attempting to eliminate all the bandits from Egypt within two years. Since his sentence is revealed on the last day of the festival of Osiris, he is to return on that day of the next festival with his task complete or face death by hanging.
Tanus, with the help of Taita, hunts down and captures the leaders of the Shrike bandits. On presenting them to Pharaoh, it is revealed that their leader is Lord Intef. Tanus has his death sentence lifted, but Intef manages to escape before he can be punished for his crimes. After the sentence is announced a storm sweeps through allowing Lostris and Tanus time to be secretly alone together, with the exception of Taita. During this time Lostris conceives Tanus' first born, and before the secret can be discovered Taita arranges for her to resume her wifely duties to Pharaoh. When the child is born he is named Memnon and claimed by the Pharaoh as his own, and his true paternity is known only to Lostris, Taita, and Tanus.
A new threat to the kingdom emerges - the warlike Hyksos. Equipped with the horse and chariot, as well as a superior recurved bow, their technological superiority is far greater than the Egyptian army's. The Pharaoh is killed, forcing a majority of the Egyptian nobility (including Lostris, Tanus, and Taita) to flee Egypt by heading up the Nile with the remaining army.
During their exile Lostris gives birth to two more of Tanus' children, both daughters, but as their relationship has been a secret Taita creates a cover story where the ghost of Pharaoh sires the child. During their period in exile, they regain their technical superiority - Taita replicates and improves both the chariots and bows he has seen used to such great effect on the battlefield.
While searching for a suitable burying place for Pharaoh's body, Taita is taken captive by one of the Ethiopian chieftains of the area - the brutal Arkoun. While in captivity, Taita becomes close friends with Masara, a fellow captive and the daughter of one of the rival chieftains. Taita eventually escapes captivity due to a freak flooding, finds the father of Masara, and strikes a deal with him to rescue Masara. With the help of Tanus, Memnon, and the Egyptian army, Arkoun is defeated. Tanus is mortally wounded during the battle and dies. Masara and Memnon fall in love and become married, with a wedding gift of several thousand horses which further boost the Egyptian army. Led by their new Pharaoh Tamose (formerly Prince Memnon), they return to Egypt. With their new-found weaponry and tactics, they defeat the Hyksos invaders and regain Egypt.
The novel contains a two-page afterword in which Smith claims the novel is based on a set of scrolls discovered in an Egyptian tomb which dates back to approximately 1780 BCE. The scrolls were discovered by an Egyptologist, Dr. Duraid al-Simma, who passed the translations onto Smith to transcribe into a novel. This is a false claim, as Smith later reveals in the afterword of the sequel, The Seventh Scroll.
[edit] The Seventh Scroll
This book is set in the present day and follows the exploits of adventurer Nicholas Quentin-Harper and his love interest, the beautiful Dr. Simma as they try and uncover the tomb of Tanus as described in River God. Wilbur Smith makes references to himself in the book, parodying the conventions of violence and sex often seen in his work.
[edit] Warlock
A sequel to River God, this details the later life of Taita, no longer a slave but a powerful warlock. The story is about how the Egyptians and Hyksos finally manage to find peace together in Egypt but are thrown into a world of conspiricy, murder, treachery and the desperate attempt of a young king directed by the warlock "Taita" to regain the kingdom left for him by his father before he was murdered by one he held dear to himself...
[edit] 'The Quest'
The next novel in the 'Taita of Ancient Egypt' series is due for publication in March/April 2007. The working title is The Quest.
[edit] Criticisms
Critics of Wilbur Smith argue that his novels often contain sexist and racist assumptions [1] [2] and that they may have a political agenda. Wilbur Smith has denied any such assumptions. Fans of Smith argue that the assumptions or actions that these critics refer to simply reflect the values and culture of a society at the point in time the novels are set, and that the racist/sexist nature of some of Smith's characters add historical accuracy and are not a reflection of his personal beliefs and opinions.
[edit] List of Novels
Below is a list of all of Wilbur Smith's novels.
Courtney (chronologically)
- When the Lion Feeds 1964
- The Sound of Thunder 1966
- A Sparrow Falls 1977
- The Burning Shore 1985
- Power of the Sword 1986
- Rage 1987
- A Time to Die 1989
- Golden Fox 1990
- Birds of Prey 1997
- Monsoon 1999
- Blue Horizon 2003
- The Triumph Of The Sun 2005
Ancient Egyptian
Ballantyne
- A Falcon Flies aka Flight of the Falcon 1980
- Men of Men 1981
- The Angels Weep 1982
- The Leopard Hunts in Darkness 1984
Wilbur Smith has also written many standalone novels:
- The Dark of the Sun 1965
- Shout At the Devil 1968
- Gold Mine aka Gold 1970
- The Diamond Hunters 1971
- The Sunbird 1972
- Eagle in the Sky 1974
- The Eye of the Tiger 1975
- Cry Wolf 1976
- Hungry As the Sea 1978
- Wild Justice 1979
- Elephant Song 1991
