"I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised
on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to
understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain
no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false."
In True History of the Kelly Gang*,* the legendary Ned Kelly speaks
for himself, scribbling his narrative on errant scraps of paper in
semiliterate but magically descriptive prose as he flees from the
police. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a
thief and a murderer. To his own people, the lowly class of ordinary
Australians, the bushranger is a hero, defying the authority of the
English to direct their lives. Indentured by his bootlegger mother to a
famous horse thief (who was also her lover), Ned saw his first prison
cell at 15 and by the age of 26 had become the most wanted man in the
wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law
until he was finally captured and hanged. Here is a classic outlaw tale,
made alive by the skill of a great novelist.*
*