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Wilbur Smith Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Wilbur Smith
Photo: Joe Partridge.

Wilbur Smith

Wilbur Smith Biography

Wilber Smith is a South African novelist specializing in historical fiction about the international involvement in Southern Africa across three centuries, seen from the viewpoints of both black and white families.

An accountant by training, he gained a film contract with his first published novel When the Lion Feeds. This encouraged him to become a full-time writer, and he developed three long chronicles of the South African experience which all became best-sellers. He still acknowledges his publisher Charles Pick's advice to "write about what you know best" and his work takes in much authentic detail of the local hunting and mining way of life, along with the romance and conflict that goes with it. As of 2014, his 35 published novels have sold more than 120 million copies, with 24 million sold in Italy alone.

Wilbur Smith's website

This bio was last updated on 10/17/2015. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

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Books by this Author

Books by Wilbur Smith at BookBrowse
Those in Peril jacket Assegai jacket The Quest jacket Monsoon jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Wilbur Smith but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Bernard Cornwell

    Bernard Cornwell

    Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 – a 'warbaby' – whose father was a Canadian airman and mother in Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

    He was adopted by a family in Essex who belonged to a ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Monsoon

    Try:
    Sharpe's Trafalgar
    by Bernard Cornwell

  • Patrick O'Brian

    Patrick O'Brian

    In addition to twenty volumes in the highly respected Aubrey/Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian's many novels include Testimonies, The Golden Ocean, and The Unknown Shore. O'Brian has also written ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Monsoon

    Try:
    The Hundred Days
    by Patrick O'Brian

We recommend 3 similar authors

View all 3 Read-Alikes

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Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

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    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
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    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
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    The Women
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    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
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    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
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