Kitsch maybe, but a good storyteller

As South Africa celebrates literature’s high art with Damon Galgut winning a Booker Prize, we also need to acknowledge that our purveyors of lower tier art (kitsch or schlock, some might say) have had a far bigger influence, both inside the country and on the global stage.

Wilbur Smith, who died over the weekend, aged 88, sold more books, probably, than all of our literary “artists” combined.

And it’s easy to see why. His 49 novels were high-paced, swashbuckling adventures, offering ordinary people an escape from reality. And the critics be damned, much as those fans of artist Vladimir Tretchikoff – who also made his name in this country – would say.

Like Smith’s, Tretchkoff’s “low” art has been stunningly successfully, with his “Green Girl” portrait being one of best-selling art prints of all time.

Smith’s work was sometimes criticised for being “colonial” in nature, reflecting the world and views of mainly white people. There may be some truth in that – although his work was also very much of its times … and did change subtly over the years.

With his death, no-one can deny that Smith was a supreme storyteller and a master of imagination.

And, he’s probably shouting at the devil…