Wilbur Smith

You don't turn out as many books as I did then by sitting around, being cozy with the family.

I know it's politically incorrect but I enjoy things like the kick boxing and cock fighting.

Usually halfway through a book I have a serious depression, so I go on safari on my ranch in South Africa, or fishing off my island in the Seychelles. When I come back and re-read it, I think: 'What was all that about, Smith? It's fine, just get on with it.'

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.

I'm not a good father and they're not children any more; the eldest is in his fifties. My relationship with their mothers broke down and, because of what the law was, they went with their mothers and were imbued with their mothers' morality in life and they were not my people any more.

Despite the fact that I spend a lot of time in London, Switzerland and New York, Africa is the place I know and love best, and my heart will always lie here.

I live in Cape Town but my favourite holiday destination is Hermanus, a little seaside town about a 90-minute drive away, over the pass and down to the sea, on the sunshine coast. It's where I love to escape to with my wife for a weekend every now and again.

I put my soul into every book I write.

I love the sea as much as I love the veldt of Africa.

I think one of the most poignant things is unrequited love and loneliness.

Literature throws us many great heroes. Real life invariably outdoes them.

I don't want children. Why should I let some strange little monster into my life to destroy what to me is a perfect set-up?