This book is absolutely fantastic! Even knowing that it's fiction, you may be under the impression ' Oh-No, not more of Carey's crap ' But wait! you are running a mile away from a fantastic, well written and most of all correct fictional book on the Kelly gang. The main character is a young orphan named Garrett, and he meet's Ned and Joe, in Beechworth he was 15. "Ned Kelly rode into Beechworth, one, cold clear Saturday and changed my life, I was 15 then " Soon, Garrett finds himself one of the most active Kelly sympathizers, and is with the gang right up until the bitter end at Glenrowan.


 

Roger that! incoming criticism! I hate to flog the dead horse, but personally I hate this book, it's is terrible. For one aspect, is the title, The TRUE History, come on! when it's nothing but a load of FICTION. Secondly, Carey claims that he got his inspiration, from Joe and Ned's Jerilderie Letter, can I ask one question? In the name of god, where in Joe and Ned's writing does it say that: Dan and Steve were homosexual with each other, and wore women's clothes. Also, Ned's father was a cross dresser? Where in the Jerilderie letter do you get a glimpse of these events? I wouldn't use this book, well, basically for anything. Enough said!....

Kelly country, based on the ultimate dream any Kelly Gang sympathizer could have wished for-The republican of North East Victoria, to have succeeded. This book began as it ended-Terrible. I must admit it was more intriguing than the above oblivion of a book. I can't regret the price I paid for a signed version, $8. No complaints here!

" The normally peaceful village of Milltown, is in the grips of a Bushranger epidemic, and no business is safe " This is the first line on the blurb of Ned Kelly's helmet. Four children, have a assignment-bushranger month-pretend your a bushranger. The Mc Googly gang, armed and dangerous, charge to the Old Melbourne Gaol, to try to steal Ned's ( really Dan's ) helmet. Eventually, they head back in time, to the Last stand at Glenrowan. and win the assignment. All summed up the book was very enjoyable, the author Stafford, threw the police brutality during the siege into retrospect.

Black Snake: The daring of Ned Kelly, is a must have if you are a Kelly gang fanatic. It puts it's reader in a light that lets no judging being known; you make your own decisions. It has little 'Opinions' of people of the outbreak, for example, a Fanny Shaw, who really was there during the Euroa Bank hold-up, tells the reader how frightened she was. It has a great section on Joe which is very accurate, and also points out what a lot of books seem to miss is that Carole Wilkinson, mentioned that Joe wrote Ned Kelly's famous letters. A good read...