When the Lion Feeds

"Yes, it is the first of the Courtney sagas. Lots of school boys get hooked on Wilbur Smith, and there are of course grown men who love them too, so he seems to go across the board. I started reading him when I was about 14 or 15, and now the series runs to about 12 or 13 books. I thought it was brilliantly clever. It is like a soap opera where every book is the next chapter of the story. “I was amazed that there were people still alive who had lived through something which had happened so long ago.” He is the hero of the first few books. He was born in the 1860s and lived in South Africa, so his life is nicely timed to coincide with the Zulu risings and diamond hunting and all that. He is quite a respectable old man by the time the Boer War comes along. And he ends up becoming a patriarch to this massive family. I love the whole family dynasty, family saga concept. I think it brings it to life. There is this idea of character traits passed down from generation to generation. When there is a union and a baby is created, and that baby grows up, if the writer is clever he can make it a creation of both its parents."