Lee Child on the enduring thrill of Wyoming—the true Wild West

The Jack Reacher author adores the drama of his remote home, the cowboy towns...and the big steaks

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Where is your favourite destination and why?

Wyoming. I have a home there, and I moved there because I like drama. In particular, I like contrast. I was living in New York City, which is hustle and bustle, tightly packed, with an amazing population density. And I wanted a total contrast from that. Wyoming is physically larger than the entire United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland. Now imagine that. Imagine that completely empty, nobody there at all, except for the population of Sheffield. That is literally Wyoming. It is unbelievably isolated and it produces a kind of self-reliance. There are zero services of any kind. It is truly the Wild West.

When was the last time you were there, and who were you with?

I was there in the summer. My brother lives there. We are next-but-one neighbours, five miles apart: there’s one house in between us. I have another friend there, and when I moved in 2016, he said, “Oh, we’re going to be neighbours.” I thought, have I misread the map? And he said, “Yeah, it’s only 105 miles.” We’ve done a 210-mile round trip for dinner many times.

What’s your top restaurant?

I live 45 minutes from Laramie, which is in the bottom right-hand corner of the state. And Laramie is what it sounds like, it’s basically a cowboy town: 30,000 people live there and it’s regarded as quite a big, bustling town. There’s a steak restaurant called The Cavalryman, where, for a pretty cheap price, you get a steak that hangs up both sides of the plate at once. And twicebaked potato, which they do with cheese and bacon.

What has been your favourite meal?

Probably there. I like a ribeye done medium, so the marbling is all melted. That is the Wyoming cuisine. A big steak.

What is the one unmissable thing you recommend doing?