Wilbur Smith dies aged 88
Zambian born accountant turned International best-selling author, Wilbur Smith has died on Saturday afternoon with his wife Niso, by his side, at his home in Cape Town at the age of 88.
Smith’s 49 published books have sold more than 140 million copies worldwide, including the publication of his debut novel When the Lion Feeds in 1964. The book which told the story of a young man growing up on a South African cattle ranch amid the Zulu wars and the gold rush, instantly became a bestseller. The tale was based partly on his own experience at the age of13 he shot dead a lion that had attacked cattle on his father’s property.
In a biography on his website, Smith describes his interest in weaving “Chunks of early African history” into his work, “ I wrote about black people and white. I wrote about hunting and gold mining and carousing and women”.
Born on 9th January 1933 in Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia, (now Kabwe, Zambia), William Addison Smith to Elfreda and Herbert James Smith, a metal worker who opened a sheet factory and created a 25, 000-acre cattle ranch on the banks of the Kafue River near Mazabuka. As a baby Wilbur Smith was sick with cerebral malaria for ten days but made a full recovery. Wilbur Smith attended boarding school at Cordwalls Preparatory School in Natal ( Now KwaZulu-Natal), where his English master made him his protégé and would discuss the books Smith had read that week. Smith devoured tales from Rider Haggard and John Buchan as a child. Smith was named after US aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright, as described in his memoir On Leopard Rock, released in 2018. His other bestsellers include The Rive God and The Triumph of the Sun.
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