Clive Sinclair's True Tales of the Wild West

Book excerpt: A photo-journalist called Peppercorn, sets off to South Dakota, to find his inner cowboy (and, more prosaically, to write an article on the Buffalo Roundup at Custer State Park for travel magazine Terra Incognita). With a cast of larger-than-life charactersincluding Peppercorns cousin, Saltzman, lecturer in (and soon-to-be saviour of) the University of St. Albans School of American Studies; Mercy Sweetbriar, Rapid Citys representative from the Department of Tourism, and runner-up in the Appearance, Personality, and Photogenics category in South Dakotas Miss Rodeo contest; and tarted-up trailer trash Miami Bitch, sporting denim hotpants and deep-pan cleavageand combining fact, fantasy, and fiction, Clive Sinclairs True Tales of the Wilde West is a glorious romp through the legends and landscapes of the American West.