Power of the Sword (The Courtneys of Africa)

Power of the Sword is the story of an intense sibling rivalry in war-torn South Africa from bestselling author, Wilbur Smith. They were half-brothers, raised in different worlds in the same country, and destined to be lifelong enemies. Manfred De La Ray and Shasa Courtney, sons of Centaine de Thiry, were blood enemies from their very first boyhood encounter. Caught up in the tumult of South Africa's history through two decades, they found themselves adversaries in an age-old war of savagery to seize the sword of power in their land. Sweeping from the teeming goldfields of the highland to the secret citadels of Afrikaaner power, from the clamouring stadiums of Hitler's Berlin Olympics to the raging war over Abyssinia.

Wilbur Smith was born in Central Africa in 1933. He was educated at Michaelhouse and Rhodes University. After the successful publication of When the Lion Feeds in 1964 he became a full-time writer, and has since written many novels, all meticulously researched on his numerous expeditions worldwide. His other titles include the successful The Courtneys and The Ballantynes series, and Those in Peril and Vicious Circle, featuring security operative Hector Cross. His books have been translated into twenty-six different languages.