Grantlee Kieza’s biography of Ellen Kelly, Ned’s mum, is a big (600 pages), fascinating story of a remarkable woman who survived great hardships in her life. It’s a book that doesn’t flag. Mrs Kelly came to Melbourne on a sailing ship as a 9 year old in 1841 and lived to the ripe old ageof 91 – at her death in 1923 motor cars plied the highway near her home north of Melbourne. There’s even a picture of her at the wheel of one in 1923. She was the matriarch of a wild family; of her twelve children from two husbands we all know of Ned, hung at the Melbourne Gaol, and Dan, who died in the shootout at Glenrowan. But do you know about younger son Jack, who was an instructor in horsemanship for the West Australian Police, and went on with wife Violet to become a world famous circus and rodeo act known as “Kelly and Kelly”. This superb biography of the indefatigable Ellen Kelly encompasses a long period of great social change in Australia. It’s incredibly well researched, it’s a great narrative, and it is beautifully nuanced to give us a panoramic view of the Australia of the time through the goings-on of one very large family. A very rewarding reading experience.
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