Wilbur Smith

Wilbur Smith was born on January 9, 1933 in what was then Northern Rhodesia and is now Zambia. At the age of eighteen months baby Wilbur was struck down by cerebral malaria, delirious for ten days, and doctors warned that he could be brain-damaged if he survived.

Survive he most certainly did, and as he grew up he began to share his mother's interest in novels. Her tastes were wide-ranging but they included adventure novels, which the young Wilbur devoured. In conjunction with the magnificent environment in which he was growing up, these forays into the world of the imagination made him intensely aware of his surroundings: the wildlife, the vast open spaces, the freedom to roam the country and the political tensions too.

Smith's desire to write first showed itself when he was a young man with his heart set on becoming a journalist so that he could chronicle the rapidly changing social situations of southern Africa. His stern, Victorian father, who never read a book in his life, had other ideas, however. 'Don't be a bloody fool,' he said. 'You'll starve to death. Get a real job.'