The Farm Boy

Monty Bryden’s story spans almost a century and takes him from his childhood idyll within the farming community of Argyll, in Scotland, through the precarious world of commodities trading, import and export. At times, his life story reads like an epic action movie escaping hired killers in the dark underbelly of Central Africa, facing years in jail for international fraud and battling two separate life-threatening cancers.

The book details his life from the beginning, from meeting his great love to farm management, from leading a family life to adventures abroad in Venezuela to Europe and deepest Africa where he traded in commodities and beyond. As a young man, he came face-to-face with death: on the farm, trapped underwater, behind the wheel of a runaway oil tanker and during a treacherous flood in Italy when he spent a long and anxious night perched high up in the swaying branches of a none-too-secure tree, facing the fear that he lost his wife and young children as they were swept away by strong and violent currents. Yet his closest dice with death came at the hands of a paid killer in Africa, having become involved in a major international fraud which hoodwinked several global banking giants and brought some world-leading commodities brokers to their knees in a textbook anatomy of a major scam of mammoth proportions, aided by the incompetence and secrecy of the world banking community.

Having also won the battle of two life-threatening cancers in his later years, Monty - now in his 90s - is about to embark on his next big adventure. His story is both an education and inspiration.

Monty Bryden was born into a farming family in Argyll, Scotland and now lives in Dunoon. He has travelled widely, has had various careers including farm management, product development and trading in Africa, and has lived life to the fullest in every capacity he can.