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'The astonishing life of Ned Kelly's mother
'While we know much about the iconic outlaw Ned Kelly, his mother Ellen Kelly has been largely overlooked by Australian writers and historians -
until now, with this vivid and compelling portrait by Grantlee Kieza, one of Australia's most popular biographers.
'When Ned Kelly's mother, Ellen, arrived in Melbourne in 1841 aged nine, British convict ships were still dumping their unhappy cargo in what was then known as the colony of New South Wales. By the time she died aged ninety-one in 1923, having outlived seven of her twelve children, motor cars plied the highway near her bush home north of Melbourne, and Australia was a modern, sovereign nation.
'Like so many pioneering women, Ellen, the wife of a convict, led a life of great hardship. Born in Ireland during a time of entrenched poverty and sectarian violence, she was a mother of seven when her husband died after months in a police lock-up. She lived through famine and drought, watched her babies die, listened through the prison wall while her eldest son was hanged and saw the charred remains of another of her children who'd died in a shoot-out with police. One son became Australia's most infamous (and ultimately most celebrated) outlaw; another became a highly decorated policeman, an honorary member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a worldwide star on the rodeo circuit. Through it all, 'the notorious Mrs Kelly', as she was dubbed by Victoria's Assistant Police Commissioner, survived as best she could, like so many pioneering women of the time.
'By bestselling biographer Grantlee Kieza, Mrs Kelly is the astonishing story of one of Australia's most notorious women and her wild family, but it's also the story of the making of Australia, from struggling colony and backwater to modern nation.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Another Life
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1 April 2017; (p. 19)'Near the end of his rollicking account of Australia’s most notorious outlaw family, Grantlee Kieza zooms in on Ned Kelly’s last words:
'The reporters are all too far away to hear with any certainty what Ned says. One thinks it is “Ah well, I suppose it has come to this”, while another thinks that he has stopped in mid-sentence and simply said, ‘‘Ah well, I suppose …” As the seven stunned journalists … quiz each other in whispers about what Ned might have said with his last desperate breath, [Melbourne Herald reporter Jim] Middleton tells himself he has a great quote. He jots down three words: “Such is life”.' (Introduction)
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Not-so-Demure Mrs Kelly
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18 February 2017; (p. 5) 'Ned Kelly is our most heavily mythologised outlaw, but what about his mother, Ellen Kelly? Grantlee Kieza’s new biography, Mrs Kelly: The Astonishing Life of Ned Kelly’s Mother, contends that the woman who gave birth to the celebrated yet polarising bandit has largely been overlooked, despite her eventful life.' (Introduction) -
Random Thoughts: On Recent Biographies of Australian Women
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , May 2017; 'I love a good biography. During my career I was fortunate to publish two award-winners: Jill Roe’s Stella Miles Franklin and Nadia Wheatley’s The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift. Each was written by a trained historian, each involved a mountain of research, and each took over 20 years to write. They exemplify some of the difficulties of writing biography in Australia: to produce a work that is authoritative, carefully crafted and thoroughly researched takes a long time, and mostly publishers’ advances are modest and the writing has to be financed by other work.' (Introduction) -
The Notorious Widow Kelly
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Quadrant , April vol. 61 no. 4 2017; (p. 68-70) 'I n the past five years, there have been two published biographies of Ellen 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.' (Introduction)
-
The Notorious Widow Kelly
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Quadrant , April vol. 61 no. 4 2017; (p. 68-70) 'I n the past five years, there have been two published biographies of Ellen 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.' (Introduction) -
Random Thoughts: On Recent Biographies of Australian Women
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , May 2017; 'I love a good biography. During my career I was fortunate to publish two award-winners: Jill Roe’s Stella Miles Franklin and Nadia Wheatley’s The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift. Each was written by a trained historian, each involved a mountain of research, and each took over 20 years to write. They exemplify some of the difficulties of writing biography in Australia: to produce a work that is authoritative, carefully crafted and thoroughly researched takes a long time, and mostly publishers’ advances are modest and the writing has to be financed by other work.' (Introduction) -
Not-so-Demure Mrs Kelly
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18 February 2017; (p. 5) 'Ned Kelly is our most heavily mythologised outlaw, but what about his mother, Ellen Kelly? Grantlee Kieza’s new biography, Mrs Kelly: The Astonishing Life of Ned Kelly’s Mother, contends that the woman who gave birth to the celebrated yet polarising bandit has largely been overlooked, despite her eventful life.' (Introduction) -
Another Life
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1 April 2017; (p. 19)'Near the end of his rollicking account of Australia’s most notorious outlaw family, Grantlee Kieza zooms in on Ned Kelly’s last words:
'The reporters are all too far away to hear with any certainty what Ned says. One thinks it is “Ah well, I suppose it has come to this”, while another thinks that he has stopped in mid-sentence and simply said, ‘‘Ah well, I suppose …” As the seven stunned journalists … quiz each other in whispers about what Ned might have said with his last desperate breath, [Melbourne Herald reporter Jim] Middleton tells himself he has a great quote. He jots down three words: “Such is life”.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2018 longlisted Indie Awards — Nonfiction