In this version of the story, Ned Kelly grabs Sarah Gilbert and rides headlong into the historical record.
AS a reader I love to learn about the past, and I do it in the usual way – via official histories, biographies and documentaries, as well as fiction. While my conscious brain knows the difference, in my imagination the facts
coexist quite harmoniously with all the other stories and characters that make their home there, both made-up and real.
The role of drama and historical novels in helping us know or imagine the past is one that can sometimes frustrate historians, and understandably so – the reader can hardly be expected to intuit the true-story bits from the “based on a true story” bits, and sooner or later it all becomes something more like myth.
