'Something always dies when the lion feeds and yet there is meat for those that follow him.' The lion is Sean, hero of this tremendous drama of the men who took possession of South Africa in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Sean and his twin-brother Garrick grew up on their father's farm in Natal. The first part of the book deals with his childhood and youth and his longing to become a successful farmer and hard-hitting fighter like his father.
The tough life of cattle-farming is brusquely interrupted by the Zulu Wars, when Sean and his brother see fighting for the first time. Wilbur Smith vividly recreates the excitement of the war for the young men-their hope of winning their own cattle, the horror of the massacre at Isandhlwana, the heroism of the defence at Rorkes Drift.
'Witwatersrand' is the name of the second part of this book and it tells the story of Sean's fabulous success in the gold rush and his rich life with Duff Charleywood and the beautiful Candy in the new town of Johannesburg, where huge fortunes were made and lost in a morning's dealing on the Exchange.
The atmosphere of this feverish, violent time is brilliantly drawn: the heavy drinking, the elaborate houses, the ruthless abandonment of the failure. Sean and Duff are caught at last in a trap laid by their rival, the sinister and clever Hradsky, and leave Johannesburg for the wilderness to seek their fortunes once more.
And now the book moves to its climax. At last it seems as though Sean will settle to a quiet married life – but fate has other plans for him. They return to Johannesburg and tragedy strikes quickly. Sean finds himself alone once more...
Filled with action scenes in war and the early heady days of the gold rush, and adventure among the vast game herds of the African wilderness, this novel is dominated by the towering compelling personality of Sean, whose life story is continued in The Sound of Thunder and A Sparrow Falls.
Reviews
* 'Plenty of incident and colour' – The Observer, 1966
* 'Pride of place goes to When the Lion Feeds because it is bigger, wider and more full of plot than all the others put together ...'
– The Daily Telegraph, 1966.
* 'Wilbur Smith has built up his wide-screen adventure story with energy and shrewdness.' – Sunday Times, 1966
* 'Mr. Smith is a natural story-teller who moves confidently and often splendidly in his period and sustains a flow of convincing incident without repeating his excitement.' – The Scotsman. 1966
* 'A very impressive book in its wide scope and its descriptive colour.'
The Van Der Byl Diamond Company, willed by its founder to his son Benedict, daughter Tracey and estranged foster-child Johnny Lance, turns out to be a bequest not of love, but of hatred. For it is couched in such terms as to offer Benedict an instrument of destruction of his bitterest rival. 'Destroy Johnny' was the old man's implacable message to his son, and, obsessively jealous of his foster-brother, Benedict sets out in ruthless pursuit of this goal.
In a desperate bid to support Johnny, Tracey acquires for him the concession in the diamond-rich seabed round the coral islands of Thunderbolt and Suicide off the savage South West African coast, and Johnny throws all his resources into the construction of a vessel that will recover the stones from the ocean floor and repair his fortune at last. But Benedict, already involved in illegal diamond-dealing as a sideline, seizes this chance to attack his rival and, with a network of accomplices and some ingenious electronic tampering, plots to syphon off the diamonds. Johnny will not only be ruined by his liabilities, he will also be a laughing stock.
However, Benedict's obsessive jealousy is his undoing. He cannot resist stripping his rival of his beautiful but bitchy wife Ruby as well, and when he then discards her, she takes her revenge, precipitating a climax of murder and destruction that consumes Benedict at last.
Narrated with Wilbur Smith's irresistible driving thrust, The Diamond Hunters is a tale of brotherly hatred, redeemed only by the deepening love between Johnny and Tracey. It is set in London, Cape Town, on the thunderous seas around the ocean diamond fields and ends in a final confrontation between Johnny and Benedict in the blistering hyena-infested desert.
David Morgan, heir to a family fortune, rebels and becomes a jet fighter pilot. Meeting Debra, an Israeli writer, he follows her to her homeland and becomes involved in her country's war for national survival, at a terrible cost to both Debra and himself.
Gold Mine by Wilbur Smith
North of Johannesburg, five companies share the Kitchenerville fields, furiously blasting and digging deep into the earth. For some men, gold mining is a way of life--and death. For some it's just a business. For one man, it's the most dangerous game of all...
Rod Ironsides makes love to his boss's wife and drives his miners faster and harder than anyone has ever dared. A few weeks ago, Ironsides had a passion for golf and one-night stands. Now, he has been handed a prize and a curse: to blast through rock and reap a fortune--or be destroyed.
From a split-second, oxygen-sucking explosion to a looming underground wall of water, there are a dozen ways Rod can fail. But his passion and fury won't let him back down from a conspiracy he cannot see: men who want to turn his mine into a death trap--for the bloodiest pay-day of all..
Wilbur Smith's adventure tales are big, bold and unforgettable. In SHOUT AT THE DEVIL, the New York Times bestselling master storyteller takes us to a brutal paradise engulfed in the fires of civilization's war...
A MAN ON HIS OWN
They couldn't be anymore different: an earnest young Englishman named Sebastian Oldsmith and an Irish American adventurer named Flynn O'Flynn who never encounters a rule he doesn't break. Fate brings them together in Zanzibar. A sadistic German turns them into allies, then into warriors.
A WOMAN IN LOVE
From the moment Rosa O'Flynn lays eyes on Sebastian, Rosa finds the man she would love forever—never mind what plans her father has for her. But imperialism is shaking Mozambique, where O'Flynn is the craftiest, fiercest beast in the jungle. And when Rosa and Sebastian lose what is most precious, they join a band of rogues, natives, wanderers, and hunters to start their own war against an enemy who has nothing to fear—and everything to lose...
A HUNT FOR THE MOST DANGEROUS PREY OF ALL
From the sound and sight of a charging bull elephant to ships ablaze on the Indian Ocean, this is a full throttle saga of survival—against nature, man, and the devil himself...