Wilbur Smith was born in 1933 in what was then Northern Rhodesia, present day Zambia, but spent most of his life in South Africa. In 1964 he made his debut with the historical novel ‘When the lion feeds’, which appeared in Dutch as ‘Hetgoud van Natal’. This was followed by 48 other novels, in which he took his readers on a journey through the history and culture of Africa.
He achieved his greatest success with his Courtney series. These were novels that told the story of a family through three centuries, from the colonization of Africa by Europeans to apartheid in South Africa.
American thriller writer Stephen King once called Smith “the very best historical novelist”. Smith was especially credited for his landscape descriptions and the lifelike characters in his stories.
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