Wilbur Smith

Wilbur Smith has a house in Malta but his main residence is in Cape Town, he tells FT columnist William Leith:

When you think of Wilbur Smith, you think of lions, of men shooting lions, of men who shoot lions and have sex with beautiful women. You think of Africa. You think of the great riches of Africa, and the men who squandered those riches, mostly towards the end of the 19th century. You think of men who are so masculine that women turn to jelly, overwhelmed by sheer testosterone. “Of course she had seen a man’s naked body before ... but never like this, not healthy and vital and overwhelming like this.” (A Falcon Flies, 1980)..

Smith himself, at 76, is still surprisingly healthy and vital, if not overwhelming...No, he tells me, it’s not true that he lives in London, as has been written – though he does have a house in Knightsbridge, as well as places in Malta and Davos, Switzerland. But his main residence is in Cape Town, where he lives with his fourth wife, Mokhiniso, 39 – “the best thing that has happened to me”, as he puts it on the dedication page of his latest novel. He met Mokhiniso in 1999, while shopping for books in WH Smith in Sloane Square, and they married in May 2000.

Smith, who is on a book tour to promote his latest novel Assegai – his 32nd to date – is very twinkly. He says he likes to go to the gym a lot, ideally three times a week. Last year he had a knee operation, though, which slowed him down. He had his cartilage trimmed and it was agony afterwards. He couldn’t exercise much, so put on a bit of weight. You’d hardly notice.