Wilbur Smith’s final novel another classic
The Courtney Saga Wilbur Smith with Tom Harper Loot.co.za (R265) BONNIER BOOKS UK
ACKNOWLEDGED as one of the most prolific and well-known adventure writers, Wilbur Smith's latest, and final, historical novel,
Warrior King, shows just why his reputation still stands 60 years after his 1964 debut novel When the Lion Feeds.
Smith had a God-given talent that he maximised by choosing subject matter which he either carefully researched or experienced personally.
Growing up on his father's
25 000 acre ranch in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), young Smith's playmates were farm labourers' children with whom he'd play and roam the ranch.
Those childhood escapades would eventually form the memories often woven into the pages of his books.
When in 2021 Smith died, leaving Warrior King's unfinished manuscript, colleague and friend Tom Harper, picking up where Smith left off, so smoothly wove Smith's word tapestry that little appears to be lost in the telling of this historical novel.
Warrior King's era is mid-19th century, during King Shaka's reign, as well as the afflictions experienced by the 1820 Settlers.
Our heroine is Ann Waite. She's a typical young English woman who, with Frank, her husband, braved leaving family and another life to accept the offer of a farm in the Eastern Cape, promising good, sustainable crops.
Unfortunately nothing went according to plan. Shipwrecked with a number of sailors at Algoa Bay, on the farm the young couple accepts, they fail to produce profitable crops. When Ann loses her baby, and Frank dies, Ann decides it's time to return to England.
Back on the beach, protected by the shipwrecked crew, Ann finds yet another wrecked boat, in which lies a dead woman, a crying child and an injured man.
He turns out to be Ralph Courtney, of Smith's Courtney dynasty novels. He tells Ann the baby's name is Harry and “she can have him if she wants him”.
Clutching Harry, Ann cares for him, and tends to Ralph's wounds while he informs her that he, together with Dutchman Marius
Wessels (a foul-mouthed, dangerous bigot) and Jobe, a black man, escaped from Robben Island only to be shipwrecked like Ann.
The unlikely trio swear loyalty to each other and promise to share any wealth they find on this foreign land. Can this allegiance stand? The answer lies in the nitty gritty of this historical fiction.
Into those three men's relationship add the influence Ralph has upon power-hungry warrior Zulu king Shaka. The hatred Dingaan holds for his half-brother king, the wars they fought, Shaka's assassination and the unexpected way Ralph and Ann re-unite.
We read what a complex, ruthless man Shaka was and how he and his accomplices stood together and outsiders were banished.
Smith relates how resilient and enterprising the stranded individuals left on the beach could be. This, even to the extent of building their own ship and living off what the land could offer.
There's plenty of bloodletting, not something I'm fond of, in the accounts of the spears versus guns in Warrior King.
However, the manner in which Harper and Smith draw their characters can be likened to William Hogarth's clearly defined paintings. The artist was best known for his series of paintings on moral subjects.
Although the protagonists' odysseys may stretch readers' credulity, Warrior King is a good read for historical fiction fans.