Wilbur Smith

But that's not why he chose us.

I think Wilbur Smith said, if he chose me now, you know, he might change his mind, you know.

But Moses finds something very surprising in God's love.

In fact, we should probably...

Hello.

I was seven years old when I read When the Lion Feeds, Wilbur Smith's very first novel, the one that opens up in the Natal of the 1860s, Peru into the Anglo-Zulu War, onto that field at East Sandwana, into the barricades of Rourke's Drift, before the gold rush and the great hunts ever begin.

I don't think I understood it then, but the very first thing Africa ever gave me through Smith was this war, the one that we spent part one standing inside.

I would have read it the way a child reads the thing that is quietly going to shape his entire life without ever announcing that's actually what it's doing.

So he said, authors used to do the do, then write the book later.

Fleming, Forsyth, Hemingway, Wilbur Smith.

Now they just write a book inspired by books they read and LARP in their backyard.

I responded, what's really bad these days is there's thousands of authors telling AI to write their stories, then claiming to be a writer.

Although sometimes if you're on holiday with other people, unless they're now on everyone, you know, maybe people have Kindles, but it was always kind of a thing where you ran out of your own books and you had to read their books.

I remember once running out of books and I had to read Andy's Wilbur Smith, which I wouldn't have done otherwise.

I really enjoyed it.

And then one of my first ever kind of book events was with Wilbur Smith.

So I was able to say to him, I'm a big fan.

And he was very, very charming.

And it was quite a big agent.

And Wilbur Smith's agent.

Okay.

I was like, oh my God, this is amazing.