It all now makes sense- no wonder Wilber Smith's books are so good he lived a lot of them. I have always loved Africa and read all I could about it, starting with Rider Haggard then I found Wilber Smith he took me to the lands I so wanted to visit but just could not afford to. I was going to be a missionary like Livingstone but ended up a teacher in a town school. I did get there in the end -Table Top Mountain, Victoria Falls, Rhodesia now Zimbabwe they are all as fantastic as promised by these authors. Each book is like having news of an old friend. The Courtney's the Ballentines and then the other stories of mines and ships. It is fascinating to see where all this came from and how much of a struggle it was.