Readers of Annie Proulx’s fiction will be familiar with the angry skies of southern Wyoming. They provide a backdrop for three collections of short stories (Close Range, Bad Dirt and Fine Just the Way It Is), as well as Brokeback Mountain. Now Pulitzer-winner Proulx returns to Wyoming, this time with a work of non-fiction.

Bird Cloud tells the story of a 640-acre estate on the western slopes of the Medicine Bow range, close to Saratoga. Bisected by the North Platte River, the land consists of cottonwood, wetland and overgrown pasture – mostly sedge and sage – and a 400-foot cliff, the creamy