The Congress of Rough Riders

William Cody grows up in England under the influence of a father fascinated by Buffalo Bill, a distant family connection whose touring Wild West spectacle has become a private mythology. Stories of frontier heroism shape William’s childhood even though the historical show depended on carefully staged versions of conquest, violence and celebrity.

William leaves Britain and attempts to escape the family obsession, but remains tied to his father and the inherited Cody name. When his father proposes recreating Buffalo Bill’s Congress of Rough Riders for a modern audience, William refuses until tragedy forces a return. The novel moves between family history and the commercial memory of the American West, examining how spectacle turns contested history into entertainment and personal identity.