![]() His version is a mixture of misinterpreted facts and creative imagination, designed to bring drama and sympathy to this shanty-living, lawless family. Kieza “goodies and baddies” view of nineteenth-century colonial history ignores recent scholarship, which questions the basic assumptions on which his interpretation rests. Kieza not only misrepresents Ellen and Ned’s dramatic story, he does so in an unashamedly partisan and melodramatic fashion:Ī spirit of antagonism prevails between the families in the grand country houses and the selectors in their bark-slab huts … For the Kellys and Quinns, the police in Victoria are becoming as oppressive as those in Ireland. It is a rehash of the old Kelly myth of persecution and harassment of “the poor widow” Kelly. ![]() Neither has shed much light on the mother of Ned Kelly, beyond portraying her as a long-suffering woman with a large family who was constantly hassled by the wicked police.ĭespite what the publicity blurb promises on the cover of journalist Grantlee Kieza’s Mrs Kelly: The Astonishing Life of Ned Kelly’s Mother, the book fails to bring the reader any new knowledge. ![]() ![]() In the past five years, there have been two published biographies of Ellen Kelly. Mrs Kelly: The Astonishing Life of Ned Kelly’s Mother ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |