World-renowned author Wilbur Smith died at his home in South Africa on Saturday after years of writing work, his office said. He was 88 years old.

With 49 titles under his belt, Mr. Smith became a well-known name, his humorous stories that took readers from the tropical islands to the jungles of Africa and Ancient Egypt and World War II.

“International writer Wilbur Smith died suddenly this evening at his home in Cape Town after reading and writing this morning with his wife Niso by his side,” said a statement published on the Wilbur Smith Books page by its publishers Bonnier Books UK. .

“An unmistakable and unparalleled travel expert, Wilbur Smith’s books have held readers accountable for over half a year, selling over 140 million copies worldwide in over 30 languages.”

The word does not reveal the cause of death.

His first 1964 book “When the Lion Feeds”, the story of a young man who grew up on a cattle ranch in South Africa, became an instant hit and led a series of 15, following the family’s fortune for fame for more than 200 years.

Born in Zambia in 1933 to a British family, he was also a big game hunter, growing up in the forests, mountains and mountains of Africa on his ancestral farm.

He also had a pilot’s license and was an underwater swimmer.

As a conservationist, he took care of his zoo and had a tropical island in the Seychelles.

He praised his mother for teaching him to love nature and to read, and when his father — a very disciplined man — gave him a gun at the age of eight, the first thing he admitted was a lifelong love of guns and hunting.

He suffered from cerebral palsy when he was only a year and a half old — a serious illness for which he feared he would lose his brain if he survived.

“It helped because I think you have to be a little crazy to make money by writing,” he said later.

The best-selling “Courtney Series” was the longest in the history of printing, dating from three centuries to three centuries, “through difficult times from the beginning of colonial times in Africa to the American Civil War, to apartheid in South Africa,” the publisher said. wake.

But it was Taita, the hero of the “Egyptian Series”, whom Wilbur “became famous, and River God is still one of his favorite books to this day”, added.

‘It Made the Millions Happy’

He also used his experiences outside Africa in places like Switzerland and rural Russia to help create his own imaginary country.

In their 2018 article “On Leopard Rock”, Mr. Smith explains that he had “difficult times, bad marriages … burned midnight fat, but in the end, he added a wonderful and wonderful life.

“I want to be remembered as someone who made millions of people happy,” he wrote.

His office thanked “millions of fans around the world who enjoyed his amazing writing and joined us all in his amazing events”.

His books were translated into about 30 languages ​​and several were made into films, including “Shout at the Devil” by Lee Marvin and Roger Moore in 1976.

Mr. Smith “leaves him a treasure trove,” including unpublished books, according to Kate Parkin, executive director of Bonnier Books.

Kevin Conroy Scott, an assistant writer for the past decade, described him as “a symbol, greater than life” and said “his knowledge of Africa, and his mind knows no bounds”.

He has been married four times, with his last wife, Mokhiniso Rakhimova of Tajikistan, his 39-year-old son.