The Bushrangers / by William Joy and Tom Prior

[Kim Allen Scott]

I never look a gift horse in the mouth, and when my friend presented me with a copy of this book during my recent visit to New South Wales I tucked it away in my luggage to savor once I got home.  I think as simple as the prose is in this history I could have easily finished it at the airport, and I cannot really recommend it.  The book pretends to be a history of the entire practice of highway robbery in Tasmania and mainland Australia from the earliest days to the early twentieth century, but in 155 pages one can only say so much.  The result is some introductory chapters that race through the careers of some pretty interesting characters like "Mad" Dan Morgan and Ben Hall with choppy sentences that hardly give the reader time to visualize the actions described.  Once the narrative reaches Ned Kelly, however, the authors slow down to give in detail the well known episodes of the gang's career.  In fact, of the 29 chapters of the book, a full 12 are devoted to the Kellys, with two additional appendix chapters to present Ned's famous Glenrowan and Jeralderie letters in full.  You might want to have a look at this book if you are interested in how the Kelly story has evolved over the past century, since this version written in 1963 is another signpost along the way.  If you really want a history of bushrangers, however, this is not the book for you.