• On Leopard Rock

  • A Life of Adventures
  • By: Wilbur Smith
  • Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
  • Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (156 ratings)

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On Leopard Rock  By  cover art

On Leopard Rock

By: Wilbur Smith
Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
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Publisher's summary

Wilbur Smith has lived an incredible life of adventure, and now he shares the extraordinary true stories that have inspired his fiction.

From being attacked by lions to close encounters with deadly reef sharks, from getting lost in the African bush without water to crawling the precarious tunnels of gold mines, from marlin fishing with Lee Marvin to near death from crash-landing a Cessna airplane, from brutal school days to redemption through writing and falling in love, Wilbur Smith tells us the intimate stories of his life that have been the raw material for his fiction. Always candid, sometimes hilarious, and never less than thrillingly entertaining, On Leopard Rock is testament to a writer whose life is as rich and eventful as his novels are compellingly.

©2018 Wilbur Smith (P)2018 Bonnier

What listeners say about On Leopard Rock

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This Gives You a Look Into Wilbur Smiths Life

If you haven’t read Wilbur Smith YOU NEED TO! I am so sad because I have now finished all of his series along with all but one of his novels. I’m saving that for an up coming road trip with my husband.
Mr. Smiths writing style is so very extraordinary, vivid, alive, I feel like I am a character in one of his stories his novels are so easy to melt into. I feel as though I can, smell the air, taste the salt of the sea, feel the stinging heat of the desert, touch the minerals and rocks, hike through the jungles, go on Safari, feel the splashing rain, smell the mineral iron smell of blood, ride a horse....I JUST DO NOT KNOW HOW TO EXPRESS HOW FABULOUS THESE NOVELS & SERIES ARE!
***THANK YOU Wilber Smith for sharing your stories with the world, I for one am richer for it.

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7 people found this helpful

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Wilbur Smith is Raconteur Royalty

Having read my first Wilbur Smith novel when I was a mere 17 years of age, I quickly realized that within those pages, I would forever find the adventures, action, tragedies, triumphs, beauty, brutality and life lessons that every literary voyeur wishes to dive into deeply and often!

Birds of Prey was to be that diving board that would send me splashing into a deep pool of Smith’s world of many magnificent tales.

Being South African myself, I instantly understood his deep love of and respect for the African continent with all of its splendor and squalor. All of which he captures so seemingly without effort, however, always with expertly crafted plots and twists, meticulously researched historical factuality and just a hint of boyish roguishness.

I will always find his books irresistible and have reread some of these tomes several times over without it losing any of the sparkle that so endeared me to them all those years ago.

On Leopard Rock is an honest, sober, insightful and utterly entertaining glance into the author’s extraordinary life. His passion for exploration and adoration of nature, his insatiable wanderlust, the love and respect for his family and friends is captured sincerely within these pages.


Most of the questions I have often wondered about have been instantaneously answered whilst gaining insights about aspects of his stories I have not even thought about yet!

A joyous experience from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers.

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The Pinnacle of a Monumental Career

I’ve loved Wilbur Smith for many years. I loved this memoir and thoroughly enjoyed his trip through his lifetime. I am an aspiring writer and the last chapter has some sage advice that I already take to heart. If you’re a Wilbur Smith fan, I dare to say you will love this book.

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What a gem!

Not only as an autobiography of a life well lived, but as an example of what can be done when one is determined to see dreams come true. In addition, by sharing his story, Mr. Smith has provided an incredible encouragement to all readers who aspire to publish their own book (and amongst all bibliophiles, who doesn’t?) If you have ever enjoyed a Wilbur Smith novel, this is an excellent and enervating blueprint of the author! Thank you, Mr. Smith!

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Stephanie Levy - Highland Park Illinois USA

It’s rare that you finish a book and want to begin it again to savor every word a second time. I wish Wilbur Smith was alive so I could tell him how much this book meant to me. Most especially since President FD de Klerk has just passed away a couple months ago. WS description of the magnificence of Nelson Mandela was truly well done. The world is poorer for Madiba’s passing, but richer for his undeniable brilliant example of “once in a lifetime” African statesmanship. This book is a masterpiece.

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thank you Wilbur

as always you create an adventure in my mind, l live for your next dook.

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Loved it

Very interesting. I had never heard of this author and now I want to start reading his novels.

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LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS BOOK

thanks so much for an amazing read, can’t wait to re-read more of his books. I felt like I knew him, and wished to be him, to live his adventures

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Wilbur Smith in the Raw

A fascinating unvarnished journey into Smith's past, values and perspective. Better than his novels. Met him in Cape Town once and he is what he writes.

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Bitter sweet experience

Listening to this book was a bittersweet experience for me. My dad was a life long fan of Wilbur Smith’s books and although I have only read 3 of them my Dad has read most. I know my Dad never got around to reading Leopard Rock. Both my Dad and Wilbur Smith passed away in 2021 and whilst listening to this book I couldn’t stop thinking how much Dad would have enjoyed it too. I listened and enjoyed it for both of us. It is a truly engaging book, narrated brilliantly.

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