An interesting thread folks. Good to see our Ned STILL making headlines ! I personally enjoyed Carey's book on Jack Maggs ( the mysterious benefactor in Dicken's Great Expectations ), but not so much his offering on Kelly. I've heard him interviewed on the subject, listened to the bookreading on the ABC (radio) and even tried to read it!! The "Jerilderie letter" whose style he borrowed is just so powerfully expressive, Ned and Joe Byrne together, in full flight, so real! I relly wanted to enjoy the book, but I just got angry at the subterfuge of it all. When I read the phrase, "..there were no income generated.." (on the farm) I spat the dummy!! Maybe it's the Noo Yawk air! Another expat Aussie, Robert Hughes, art critic etc., also resident in that burg has patronised us from the great heights with his views beyond the fatal shore (the fatal flaw?) For a REAL history, one can't go past Ian Jones' "A Short Life", the result of over 30 years of patient work, or if you're really keen you could try J.J.Kenneally's "Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and their pursuers",first published 1929, containing details of the Royal Commission into the whole affair of the Kellys, ESPECIALLY the conduct of the police; his principal informant was Tom Lloyd (the providore), the man closest to the Kellys, and reviewed by Jim Kelly, the surviving brother.I have my well-thumbed copy in front of me right now. I'm not too familiar with the protocols of this Mudcat thing, ( or computers, being only a semi-reformed Luddite!) but I guess you say hello to who ya know, and swap stuff ( and I'm learning to type with both fingers now) Extra g'day to Bob B. We must have passed each other 100 times at festivals, but I can't recall meeting you!! Maybe we can remedy that this Easter in Canberra? Airto and Hrothgar, you have to make up your own minds as to whether Ned was or wasn't, a good man, but he has become in little over 100 years, an heroic legend, one step below mythic hero, exhibiting an almost supra-mortal doom and destruction; wounded more than 20 times, seriously in the hand and foot, he singlehandedly eluded the besiegers at Glenrowan to warn Lloyd and other supporters that their plan to CAPTURE the senior police and ransom them for his mother's freedom had gone wrong, THEN WENT BACK TO JOIN HIS MATES in their last stsnd. No wonder that to Aussies ever since, Diggers on the battlefield, or anywhere, "as game as Ned Kelly" was the highest praise a man could give or get. Whew!!! I've got a bit carried away here! Sorry for the long wind,but I can't help caring about what I care about all the best toyezall Davo