The Legend of Colton H Bryant - Tapa dura

Colton H Bryant grew up in Wyoming and never once wanted to leave it. Wyoming - wild, open and heartsearingly beautiful - loved him and he loved it back. Two things helped Colton get through school and the neighbourhood gang who chased after him on his bike yelling 'retard': his best friend Jake and his favourite mantra: Mind over matter - which meant to him: if you don't mind, it don't matter. Colton and Jake grew up wanting nothing more that the freedom to sleep out the great Wyoming night sky, and to be just like Jake's dad, Bill, a strong, gentle man of few words who can ride rodeo like nobody's business. Colton started work himself as a driller on a rig, despite his young wife begging him to quit. But Colton's dad worked on the rig, and his dad before him, and Colton claimed it was in his blood. Colton did die young and he died on the rig - falling to his death because the oil company neglected to spend the $2,000 on safety rails. His family received no compensation.The strong, sad story of Colton H Bryant's life could not be told without the telling of the land that grew him, where there are still such things as cowboys roaming the plains, where it is relationships that get you through and where a simple, soulful and just man named Colton H Bryant lived and died.

Alexandra Fuller was born in England in 1969 and in 1972 she moved with her family to a farm in Rhodesia. After the civil war there in 1981, the Fullers moved first to Malawi, then to Zambia. She now lives in Wyoming and has three children.