a b "Passion and piracy with Wilbur Smith". HeraldScotland. 14 July 2012 . Retrieved 25 November 2017. Nothing compared to the thrashing we will give King George,’ muttered Cal. He skipped out of the kitchen, avoiding the pewter mug Theo had thrown at his ear. And I have never regretted it.’ Louisa stood and helped Jim to his feet. ‘But we cannot control what our children do, still less our grandchildren. We must trust to God.’

No.’ Cal’s voice was as stern as their father’s. ‘This is not like when we played at soldiers in the hayfield.’ He tousled his brother’s hair. ‘I don’t want you to get hurt.’ He stared at Rob, ready to gut him in an instant. With his skin tanned as brown as a walnut, dripping wet, smeared with shark’s blood and naked as Adam, Rob looked like some kind of hideous sea sprite. When it comes to writing the adventure novel, Wilbur Smith is the master; a 21st century H. Rider Haggard’ Gold". The Australian Women's Weekly. 23 October 1974. p.33 . Retrieved 25 January 2015– via National Library of Australia.Where do you think you are going, Robert Courtney?’ Rob spun around, to see his grandmother emerging from the shadows of a kapok tree. Her silver hair was luminous, her white dress like a shaft of moonlight. Rob loved ships. They had fascinated him all his life. How many times had he climbed to the top of the bluffs with his father’s spyglass to watch a distant sail scudding past? He had made his father tell him all the names until he knew them in his sleep: proud Indiamen and stout brigantines, Arab dhows from Zanzibar, and Bermuda sloops with their triangular sails. Most of all, he loved the men of war, the frigates and line-of-battle ships he occasionally saw beating up the coast from Cape Town, the red ensigns streaming from their sterns. Once – the most thrilling moment of his life – he had witnessed two frigates trade broadsides for nearly three hours, just a few miles off the coast. He had never forgotten the sight of the guns running out like rows of teeth, or the wall of flame as they fired in perfect unison. Testament, the latest in Wilbur’s bestselling Ancient Egyptian series, co-authored by Mark Chadbourn, will be published in September 2023. Following on from The New Kingdom in September 2021, and Titans of War in 2022, Testament opens with the Egyptian victory over the invading Hyksos army in Thebes and a divided Egypt in desperate need of leadership to restore its fortunes. 2024 will see a final adventure to complete Wilbur’s vision for this story arc set in the world of his beloved character Taita.

Rob had never heard her talk like this before. For the first time in what seemed like his whole life, he felt that he was speaking to someone who truly understood him. The boy is growing up,’ said Cornish. George’s scowl deepened; Cornish hastily changed the subject. ‘Where is Jim?’ Smith admits to being tempted by movie money at this stage of his career but deliberately wrote something that was a complete change of pace, The Sunbird (1972). [25]

Eventually the shark stopped moving. It rose to the surface and floated belly-up in the sea. Rob thrust the spear deeper into its flesh, then looped the rope over his shoulder to drag it to the beach. They would eat shark meat that night. Keeping low, he ran to the house and flattened himself against the wall. It was a grand building, as befitted the richest merchant in Madras, designed in the fantastical style that was unique to the British in India. A broad verandah was supported by Grecian columns; onion domes flanked classical pediments. It stood about half a mile from the walls of Fort St George and Madras, though near enough to hear the surf crashing on the beach.

I remember how it was when I was your age. To fight for a cause, for a family or your honour, is a noble purpose. But perhaps when you have seen something of war, you will understand why your elders are less eager to embrace it.’ BOOK 19 IN THE EPIC HISTORICAL SAGA OF THE COURTNEY FAMILY, FROM GLOBAL SENSATION WILBUR SMITH. BOOK 3 IN THE TIGER'S PREY SEQUENCE. The first story I ever sold was to 'Argosy' magazine, which... at QuoteTab". QuoteTab . Retrieved 17 September 2020. Why have we come here, Connie?’ asked the boy. He was taller than her, of which he was proud, though a year younger. He was sturdily built, already taking the shape of the man he would become, with a mop of tousled red hair and intelligent brown eyes. His skin was darker then hers, a bronze that could pass for Indian as easily pass as European. Theo ran. Each step was agony, but he forced himself to go on, spurred by the fear of what his father would do to him if he were caught.Santaularia, Isabel (2001). "A Reclamation of Masculine Space: Wilbur Smith's Manipulation of Space in the Courtney Saga". Atlantis. Madrid: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos. 23 (2): 91–103. Wild Justice (1979), filmed as Wild Justice but was released to video under the title Covert Assassin (1993) starring Roy Scheider Smith dedicated his books to her until she died from brain cancer in 1999, following a six-year illness. [43] Smith said: Mansur and Verity Courtney were sitting in their parlour, playing chess, when Meridew arrived at the door. Their house was a short distance from his. They had an uneasy relationship with the East India Company, and Mansur did not want to be too close to the walls of Fort St George. The beast convulsed and writhed, churning the water red as its blood spilled out. A killer to the last, even in its dying moments the taste of its own blood drove it mad with hunger. Rob swam a distance away, watching and breathing hard. He felt no sympathy for the beast. His little sister often came to swim in this bay. Rob shuddered to think of her delicate body caught in those jaws.