Australian Son: The Story of Ned Kelly by Max Brown 312-Page Hardcover Book

DescriptionA century and one-third after his death, Ned Kelly’s not forgotten, and it’s hard to believe Australians will ever forget him. As Max Brown makes clear, he passed into folklore in his lifetime, so where is he now? This is not an easy question, but Max Brown’s book is part of the answer wherever he is. When Ned was alive, and police in two states were trying to find him, he was regularly labelled a criminal, murderer, desperado, villain, et cetera. Respectable society condemned him because it had to. We might say they knew no better. The fantastic thing about Ned and his Gang is that they convinced many people that justice might mean injustice and vice versa. Ned was hanged in 1880. A lifetime later, with the world recovering from World War 2, Australian Son: The Story of Ned Kelly was written. Decades later, Max revised it but didn’t live to see this later version, which keeps the tradition alive. Tradition? Yes. The famous bushranger, from the poorest of poor families, has given rise to a persisting idea that the apparatus of justice may pursue the ends of injustice and be meted out to those who, by their sense of what’s right, deserve it least. Max Brown was born in 1916 at Invercargill, New Zealand, educated in Melbourne (St. Kilda Park Central and University High School) and worked as a journalist in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and several country towns, notably Echuca, Bendigo, Lithgow and Kalgoorlie. His paternal grandparents were on the Dunstan Gorge goldfield, and his maternal grandparents were at Dunolly, where the Welcome Stranger nugget was found. He was at various times a teacher, a wharf labourer, a knockabout, and a film publicist. After service with the RAAF in the Second World War, he used his severance pay to write Australian Son, which was first published in Melbourne and London in 1948, republished in 1961, again in 1980, and (final revised version) in 2005, and was republished as a hardback edition in 2013. He wrote two novels, Wild Turkey (1958) and The Jimberi Track (1966), as well as The Black Eureka, a history of the 1946 strike of West Australian station Aborigines, and Buttered Toast: stories and sketches, a book which further demonstrates his sympathy with those on the fringes of society. Max died in Ballarat in September 2003. Title: Australian Son: The Story of Ned Kelly Author: Max Brown Extent: 312 pages Type: Hardcover Size: 148mm x 210mm (A5) Cover: Full-colour laminated dust jacket over black linen hard case ISBN: 9780987278012 Released: 2013 Publisher: NCS Publishing Bonus: Every order receives a FREE Iron Outlaw Collector Card (series one, number one) and two FREE 36-page mini-mags by Chester Eagle, The Wars Were Over and The Armour on the life of Australian Son author Max Brown and Ned Kelly’s armour!