Author Bryce Courtenay, 79, succumbs to cancer

Australian bestselling author Bryce Courtenay has died of stomach cancer.

Now, as my story draws to an end, may I say only: ‘Thank you. You have been simply wonderful’

His publisher, Penguin Group, said the 79-year-old South African-born writer died at his family home in the capital Canberra on Thursday, surrounded by his family and pets.

Courtenay had a successful career in advertising before writing his first novel, The Power of One, which was published in 1989 when he was 56. The story was made into a film starring Morgan Freeman.

His 21st novel, Jack of Diamonds, was published only two weeks ago.

Jack of Diamonds included a moving epilogue to readers.

“It’s been a privilege to write for you and to have you accept me as a storyteller in your lives,” Courtenay wrote.

“Now, as my story draws to an end, may I say only: ‘Thank you. You have been simply wonderful’.”

Courtenay was born the illegitimate son of a dressmaker on August 14, 1933, in the mountain town of Barberton in what is now the Limpopo province of South Africa.

By the age of 17 he was working in the dangerous mines of what is now Zimbabwe, which paid his way to Britain where he studied at the London School of Journalism. He met an Australian, Benita Solomon, whom he followed to her home town of Sydney in 1958 and married.

He fell into a career in advertising with US agency McCann Erikson at 26 and rose to creative director. He had an epiphany at 50 when he decided to fulfil a lifelong ambition to be a novelist.

The Power of One was to be the first of three ‘practice books’ Courtenay planned to write over three years before taking two years to write a fourth book which he hoped would find a publisher.

“I was absolutely staggered when somebody wanted to publish it in the first place,” Courtenay said in his official biography released by Penguin.

“Now its worldwide success and the fact that it’s available in 12 languages still amazes me.”

Courtenay dedicated its sequel, Tandia, to his third son, Damon, who died of medically-acquired Aids at 24 in 1991 – two months before the book was published.

That tragedy inspired his third book, April Fool’s Day, that deals with the public fear of Aids and was published in 1993.

Last June doctors told Courtenay there was no hope of curing his stomach cancer.

Bob Sessions, Courtenay’s long-standing publisher at Penguin, said the author would produce a 600-page book in only six months, sometimes writing for more than 12 hours a day.

“He was a born storyteller and I would tell him he was a latter-day Charles Dickens with his strong and complex plots, larger-than-life characters and his ability to appeal to a large number of readers,” Sessions said.