[Closed] Book recommendations for someone that only reads Wilbur Smith

What about some Frederick Forsyth? Can get very nerdy with details about weapons or whatever but pretty easy reading and gripping generally.

Alasdair McLean

Craig Thomas

Dick Francis

Are 3 that spring to mind

Bernard Cornwell also maybe.

Mo Hayder

2nd vote for Craig Thomas
Also McLean
Jack Higgins
Hammond Innes

Pretty much all those mentioned are my dad's staples, and he was a huge Wilbur Smith fan

The Sharpe series by Bernard Conrwell.

What about Robert Harris.  Easy to read page turners that are really well written with great ideas and details.

Can't believe the first answer isn't the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. Guarantee he will love these if he's into Wilbur Smith, 100%

(p.s. Is Tom Sharpe a joke? Won't that leave an Express reader absolutely foaming at the gills? I've not read Riotous Assembly but I have read all the Wilt books, and they lean very heavily to the left - though there is some gentle smut in there that might appeal...?)

Robert Ludlum

I’ve not read Riotous Assembly but I have read all the Wilt books, and they lean very heavily to the left

I don't know those books but Frederick Forsyth is clearly a massive Tory and probably to the right of most of them - I still enjoy his books despite being a 'lefty'.

I don’t know those books but Frederick Forsyth is clearly a massive Tory and probably to the right of most of them – I still enjoy his books despite being a ‘lefty’.

You're right, and I haven't even read Riotous Assembly.

I only wrote what I wrote as I remember the Wilt books being about a put-upon, ineffectual lecturer in an FE college, with various bits of union politics in and a sort of frustrated Catch-22 vibe. Just quite different to Wilbur Smith.

But I'm talking about a different book altogether to the one hols recommended, so I apologise to hols for the tone in my previous post.

p.s. Is Tom Sharpe a joke? Won’t that leave an Express reader absolutely foaming at the gills?

Exactly. Tom Sharpe was kicked out of South Africa for Riotous Assembly, it was a fairly obscene comedy about apartheid. It's a long time since I read it, but I think it started off with a crazy old white woman shooting her black lover on the lawn with an elephant gun and the police wanting to put the body inside the house because it would be okay to shoot a black man inside the house, but not on the lawn. The police were trying to say it was rape, but the crazy old lady kept insisting that she shot him because she loved him, which was a bit of a problem for the police to deal with.

The sequel was called Indecent Exposure. From what I remember, the police got an electric shock machine to help with interrogations and they tried to use it to cure police from shagging black women by giving the offending cops electric shocks while they were being shown pictures of black women. That backfired and the cops all became gay instead. I don't remember how either book ended, just that I was not surprised that the apartheid era authorities were not appreciative.

 but I have read all the Wilt books

I flicked through Wilt at the Oxfam book shop a few months ago, and the "humour" is really dated. Hasn't aged well.

Some excellent info here, so thank you very much. Sharpe by Bernard Cornwell was my initial though before posting actually....I read loads of them in my teens. Would he need to read them in chronological order? I know that he's seen the TV shows...

Will pop a few of the other recommendations on the shopping list too.

Hornblower series?

Though I prefer Alexander Kent and on that basis as its the same chap Douglas reman

My dear old dad used to read a bit of Wilbur Smith - he also liked Clive Cussler, Craig Thomas, Tom Sharpe, James Herriott, Leslie Thomas, Spike Milligan's autobiographies and Sven Hassel, if they help. 🙂

I flicked through Wilt at the Oxfam book shop a few months ago, and the “humour” is really dated. Hasn’t aged well.

Re-read Blott On The Landscape just last month, still makes I laugh. 🙂

Clive Cussler is another enjoyable shite. Its the McDonald's of literature.

Lazy cheap enjoyable but fundamentally lacking in any nourishment

Oh, they're godawful, I can't read 'em - never read any author so clearly and unhealthily in love with his star character that he occasionally writes himself into his own books just to get to meet him. 🙂 But if people enjoy reading them, that's good enough for me. 🙂

Haaa a camio in your own book is odd but the stories are quite good.

I'm not saying booker prize wining.

Airport literature at its finest

Sharpe by Bernard Cornwell was my initial though before posting actually….I read loads of them in my teens. Would he need to read them in chronological order? I know that he’s seen the TV shows…

I'd recommend it - there are a few plot holes (mainly due to Sharpe initially being a black haired cockney before gradually evolving into Sean Bean (Cornwell is a massive fan of Sean Bean and actually prefers him to the initial character he crafted). Reading it in Chronological order takes him from being a Private in India, promotion to Officer, the Battle of Trafalgar, and then onwards to the Napoleonic Wars.

Anything Cornwell for sure. The Last Kingdom series that stars Uhtred as the Viking raised Saxon who helps King Alfred survive and then thrive against the Vikings are even better than the Sharpe books. Either series can be read out of sequence but makes sense to start at the beginning.

Also Cornwell's 3 book warlord series, essentially his take on the legend of King Arthur as a British chief fighting against the Angles and Saxons. Brilliant.

Flashman for the win though (particularly if your Grandpa is a bit of a rogue). Best historical adventure series bar none.

Tony Parks, adventures through Africa, brilliant books

Ken Follet, The pillars of the earth trilogy and century trilogy all fantastic reads.
Can't beat Bernard Cornwall either.