AdventureSmith meets the 2026 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize

A lot of the adventure smiths we have on the podcast are also storytellers, but they're usually out in the world first, maybe working on a project of some kind, and then they tell the story that they found.

But you're both coming to us as storytellers, I think it's fair to say, first and foremost.

With that in mind, what is your idea of what adventure is?

Wow.

Who

should answer that first? It was a very pregnant pause.

It's a big question.

Yeah, I think,

well, I'll go first if you like.

Please do.

I think I was thinking about that because I thought you'd ask something like that.

Because I don't think of myself as a particular, you know, I'm not an explorer.

I'm not climbing mountains.

Actually, I'm not a very physically adventurous person.

I wouldn't be one to kind of abseil down a cliff or something.

But there's different types of adventure.

And I feel adventure can be something that is in your spirit as well.

So I think open-mindedness and open-heartedness, I would say.

And I think it's quite interesting because as I get older, I do think about this a bit because I think as you get older, you can have a lot of fears about security.

And I try to still approach my life with an adventurous spirit of not letting myself be afraid of that.

You know, oh, God, I don't have a pension.

You know, this sort of thing, which I'm sure neither of you is thinking about that, but it's kind of on the table for me right now.

So, yeah, it's kind of just trusting that you are on the right path and being adventurous on the path you've chosen in this life to bring...

To bring someone very influential in my life kind of said to me once, he was my uncle.

Actually, he was Indian.