At the age of 12 I won the school prize for Best English Essay. The prize was a copy of Somerset Maugham's 'Introduction To Modern English And American Literature.' To this day I keep it on the shelf between my collection of Forester's works and the little urn that contains my mother's ashes.
Tags: day, mother, age, best

Other Quotes by "Wilbur Smith"

People don't really know themselves until they're 30. Like most people nowadays, I went to university, got a degree and wandered for a bit. I trained to be a chartered accountant, which I didn't much enjoy, and it was only slowly that the idea of becoming a creative writer gelled.
Tags: only, enjoy, know, people
I wanted to be a great white hunter, a prospector for gold, or a slave trader. But then, when I was eight, my parents sent me to a boarding school in South Africa. It was the equivalent of a British public school with cold showers, beatings and rotten food. But what it also had was a library full of books.
Tags: school, food, great, me
When I vacate this sack of old bones I won't care what you do with it. Bury or burn it but don't make much fuss.
Tags: old, burn, care, you
I think money is essential to happiness and right now I wouldn't want to be anyone other than Wilbur Smith - I've had a fantastic life, rewarded far more heavily than I deserve. Maybe I'd like to be J. K. Rowling, but I'll settle for second best.
Tags: money, best, happiness, life
I'm a feminist. The women in my books in recent years have been powerful characters and I love to see a woman with a cute bottom walking past.
Tags: woman, past, women, love
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