What do you think?
Rate this book
Black Snake: The daring of Ned Kelly
"Everyone looks on me like a black snake"
--Letter to Sergeant Babington, July 1870
Ned Kelly was a thief, a bank robber and a murderer. He was in trouble with the law from the age of 12. He stole hundreds of horses and cattle. He robbed two banks. He killed three men.
Yet, when Ned was sentenced to death, thousands of people rallied to save his life. He stood up to the authorities and fought for what he believed in. He defended the rights of people who had no power.
Was he a villain? Or a hero?
What do you think?
Black Snake tells the story of the short but amazing life of Ned Kelly, Australia’s most famous bushranger. Although this book is non-fiction, each chapter begins with a short piece of fiction. These fictional pieces look at Ned from the point of view of different people: some who loved him, some who hated him; some who admired him, some who thought he was a monster.
Reviews
“Carole Wilkinson takes the reader beyond the surface of the Ned Kelly legend… She brings the story alive through the everyday life and struggles of this unkilely hero… Wilkinson leads readers to ponder how Ned became an Australian icon in an accessible text which consummately uses fact and fictional reconstructions to achieve its purposes.”
CBC Book of the Year Judges’ Report 2003
“With Black Snake, Carole Wilkinson turns her hand from historical fiction to factual reportage, retelling the familiar story of the Ned Kelly legend. Factually, simple and without bias, Black Snake presents the circumstances behind the events as well as the conflicts between the personalities. It can be used as a biography, or read as an adventure.
“Through her consummate research and a deep empathy with the characters which she has resurrected, Carole Wilkinson has that rare ability to bring the past to life, in all of its authentic, ‘warts-and-all’ realism. Recommended.”
Magpies November 2002
--Letter to Sergeant Babington, July 1870
Ned Kelly was a thief, a bank robber and a murderer. He was in trouble with the law from the age of 12. He stole hundreds of horses and cattle. He robbed two banks. He killed three men.
Yet, when Ned was sentenced to death, thousands of people rallied to save his life. He stood up to the authorities and fought for what he believed in. He defended the rights of people who had no power.
Was he a villain? Or a hero?
What do you think?
Black Snake tells the story of the short but amazing life of Ned Kelly, Australia’s most famous bushranger. Although this book is non-fiction, each chapter begins with a short piece of fiction. These fictional pieces look at Ned from the point of view of different people: some who loved him, some who hated him; some who admired him, some who thought he was a monster.
Reviews
“Carole Wilkinson takes the reader beyond the surface of the Ned Kelly legend… She brings the story alive through the everyday life and struggles of this unkilely hero… Wilkinson leads readers to ponder how Ned became an Australian icon in an accessible text which consummately uses fact and fictional reconstructions to achieve its purposes.”
CBC Book of the Year Judges’ Report 2003
“With Black Snake, Carole Wilkinson turns her hand from historical fiction to factual reportage, retelling the familiar story of the Ned Kelly legend. Factually, simple and without bias, Black Snake presents the circumstances behind the events as well as the conflicts between the personalities. It can be used as a biography, or read as an adventure.
“Through her consummate research and a deep empathy with the characters which she has resurrected, Carole Wilkinson has that rare ability to bring the past to life, in all of its authentic, ‘warts-and-all’ realism. Recommended.”
Magpies November 2002
133 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Carole Wilkinson
66 books293 followersCarole was born in England in 1950. Her family moved to Australia when she was 12. She now lives in Melbourne, with her husband John.
Carole didn't start writing until she was nearly 40. Before that, she worked as a laboratory assistant, working with a lot of blood and brains. Once she’d decided to try and become a writer, she went to university. She wrote a lot while she was there including her first novel. She showed it to a friend who worked in publishing who asked if she could write a teenage novel. Her first published book was based on something her daughter, who was at high school at the time, was doing.
Carole says she has lots of ideas and so far she’s never had 'writers' block'. She might have got a late start, but she’s been trying to make up for lost time and has written more than 30 books, some short stories, a telemovie and some TV and planetarium scripts.
Carole didn't start writing until she was nearly 40. Before that, she worked as a laboratory assistant, working with a lot of blood and brains. Once she’d decided to try and become a writer, she went to university. She wrote a lot while she was there including her first novel. She showed it to a friend who worked in publishing who asked if she could write a teenage novel. Her first published book was based on something her daughter, who was at high school at the time, was doing.
Carole says she has lots of ideas and so far she’s never had 'writers' block'. She might have got a late start, but she’s been trying to make up for lost time and has written more than 30 books, some short stories, a telemovie and some TV and planetarium scripts.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
October 28, 2025
quite interesting and easy to read. here’s hoping i can get my year 7s to agree.
August 12, 2013
BEST BOOK!!!!
January 20, 2026
There are three sides to every story, and that of the Kelly gang illustrates that point better than most. This is a short book, but enjoyable, I think fair, and a good intro to the topic.
January 14, 2015
I read this book with my class for a literary study. I found it interesting, as did my students. It's especially useful for showing how writers can take different perspectives in their work. Black Snake: The daring of Ned Kelly shares various viewpoints of the people involved in the saga of the Kelly gang. It leaves the reader to ultimately decide if Ned Kelly, his family and friends were villains or victims.
August 25, 2012
i think that ned is a villain hero and a victom because throght the hole story he is a villian hero and victom and i dont no the hole thing i forgot but i wish i could make a story like that is think its my best book ever read so far now its your turn to tell us what you think about this story i started this year july,15th 2012 and im finished it today saterday 25th August 2012
November 30, 2018
Read this with my 9 year old. It’s a great book.
July 6, 2020
Read for school
March 28, 2011
Fiction combined with non-fiction, suitable for adults and young adults. Enjoyable and interesting.
August 6, 2012
Its stink cause you cant even read it online... Does anyone know a website you can read this online please? :)
Read
February 10, 2013this book. is. telling. a. true. story. about. a. man. who. stole. stuff. to. provide. for. his. family this. is. a. great. book. to. read :-)
Read
July 29, 2015EEEEEEK ! i didn't get too read it
May 8, 2026
I read this book after I saw the Ned Kelly movie with Heath Ledger, and it contained a lot of interesting information and photos and images of documents. It is a book for young people, but not obviously so (except perhaps in referencing a gruesome picture of dead Joe Byrne, instead of showing it).
Each chapter starts with a creative interpretation from the perspective of a witness or other person involved. Unfortunately, the fictional nature is not made clear. My suspicions were raised when I googled information about the witness and came up dry, and other readers mentioned this aspect.
Ned Kelly is of major cultural importance in Australia (sort of similar to Robin Hood), and I felt that the book should have been localized a bit when published in America. I didn't know what a bushranger was (basically highway robbers in colonial Australia).
Kelly's story is the story of a brutal time and place, and you can understand his anger at a system which would jail people by association and/or without trial (like his mother with a 3 day old baby and eventually 21 of his family and friends), who would harass his family (partly just to see his pretty sisters shivering in their thin nightgowns), who would put prisoners in solitary confinement for 3 months. Kelly resented that he got more jailtime for unwittingly receiving a stolen horse than the thief did.
But trying to defeat the police was like fighting a Hydra. Injuring Constable Fitzpatrick led to more police, and shooting three at Stringbarky Creek led to a massive manhunt with the highest bounty in Australia up to that time (2 million Australian dollars in today's money, about 1.45 million USD).
The police were criticized in the book, and by a royal commission four months after Kelly's execution. The police were both unfamiliar with the bush, slow to react and cowardly (ignoring leads and going the opposite way, using human shields and 50 police against 2 remaining outlaws at Glenrowan, yet the superior officer wanted to wait for a cannon to arrive. They also shot some hostages trying to escape, including children).
The book ended with a quotes from some of the people involved, looking back 14 years after Kelly's execution. There were also sources and links.
I think this book is a good source of information about Ned Kelly and would recommend it even though it had room for improvement.
Each chapter starts with a creative interpretation from the perspective of a witness or other person involved. Unfortunately, the fictional nature is not made clear. My suspicions were raised when I googled information about the witness and came up dry, and other readers mentioned this aspect.
Ned Kelly is of major cultural importance in Australia (sort of similar to Robin Hood), and I felt that the book should have been localized a bit when published in America. I didn't know what a bushranger was (basically highway robbers in colonial Australia).
Kelly's story is the story of a brutal time and place, and you can understand his anger at a system which would jail people by association and/or without trial (like his mother with a 3 day old baby and eventually 21 of his family and friends), who would harass his family (partly just to see his pretty sisters shivering in their thin nightgowns), who would put prisoners in solitary confinement for 3 months. Kelly resented that he got more jailtime for unwittingly receiving a stolen horse than the thief did.
But trying to defeat the police was like fighting a Hydra. Injuring Constable Fitzpatrick led to more police, and shooting three at Stringbarky Creek led to a massive manhunt with the highest bounty in Australia up to that time (2 million Australian dollars in today's money, about 1.45 million USD).
The police were criticized in the book, and by a royal commission four months after Kelly's execution. The police were both unfamiliar with the bush, slow to react and cowardly (ignoring leads and going the opposite way, using human shields and 50 police against 2 remaining outlaws at Glenrowan, yet the superior officer wanted to wait for a cannon to arrive. They also shot some hostages trying to escape, including children).
The book ended with a quotes from some of the people involved, looking back 14 years after Kelly's execution. There were also sources and links.
I think this book is a good source of information about Ned Kelly and would recommend it even though it had room for improvement.
November 16, 2023
This is my 5th book I'm reading about Ned Kelly. I'm on page 1. I'm not sure whether I'm going to like it, especially when the first 3 which were all very similar, portrayed Ned as having a rough childhood, was blamed for a lot of things he didn't do, and went on to commit crime because he was angry that his sister was disrespected and his mother locked up with an overly harsh sentence.
So I've decided to cross over the other side and read a book supposedly from an entirely different perspective. Once I'm finished, I'll come back and add to this.
Edit: Okay... I'm just a couple of pages in, and already I can predict how this version will turn out.
The author says, "How will anyone know the real Kennedy and Kelly history? Self proclaimed experts so often neglect to speak to the descendants"
Seriously? Descendants? People who were not even there at the time are supposedly better informed than so-called experts who, coincidentally tell almost the exact same story relying upon the ORIGINAL DOCUMENTED SOURCES that are still available today (some of which came directly from the Author's forefathers). How are they less credible than the 'opinions' of their great-grandchildren 150+ years later?
Update: Okay... I pretty much agree with most of this book which better explains some of the truths behind several implausible events posited in other books. But unlike the other books I've read, a lot was glossed over in this one which doesn't have much depth. However, the last 5 chapters bored me to tears - basically repeating ad-nauseum, claims already made (sometimes several times) in previous chapters, over and over, to the point that all I could hear was wah, wah, wah, wah.
I look forward to one day having some future author amalgamate all the books that come before it and presenting only those parts where there is source material to back up their claims, because even this version, like the rest fabricated parts just to fill in the gaps - no different to Fitzsimmons or Jones.
So I've decided to cross over the other side and read a book supposedly from an entirely different perspective. Once I'm finished, I'll come back and add to this.
Edit: Okay... I'm just a couple of pages in, and already I can predict how this version will turn out.
The author says, "How will anyone know the real Kennedy and Kelly history? Self proclaimed experts so often neglect to speak to the descendants"
Seriously? Descendants? People who were not even there at the time are supposedly better informed than so-called experts who, coincidentally tell almost the exact same story relying upon the ORIGINAL DOCUMENTED SOURCES that are still available today (some of which came directly from the Author's forefathers). How are they less credible than the 'opinions' of their great-grandchildren 150+ years later?
Update: Okay... I pretty much agree with most of this book which better explains some of the truths behind several implausible events posited in other books. But unlike the other books I've read, a lot was glossed over in this one which doesn't have much depth. However, the last 5 chapters bored me to tears - basically repeating ad-nauseum, claims already made (sometimes several times) in previous chapters, over and over, to the point that all I could hear was wah, wah, wah, wah.
I look forward to one day having some future author amalgamate all the books that come before it and presenting only those parts where there is source material to back up their claims, because even this version, like the rest fabricated parts just to fill in the gaps - no different to Fitzsimmons or Jones.
April 5, 2020
Caroline Wilkinson is the consummate historical researcher/author. She can combine fiction and non-fiction with a neutral, crisp manner, using historical evidence to ask questions which fire the imagination and the analytical mind. Despite all of Ned Kelly's fame and infamy, this is the first time I've read a collection of evidence and anecdotes about him and his environment. The extreme limitations of life in 1850's+ country Victoria (Ned was born in 1854, his father died in 1866, Ned was hanged in 1880), no doubt sowed the seeds of family and social dysfunction. Ned had great potential, self-agency and intelligence, all of which were prevented from fully flowering due to lack of opportunity, poverty, corruption and injustice. Ned is painted neither as a figure who was wholly wrong or wholly right - it is left to the reader to deduce and ponder. A complex and tragic story which still reverberates today.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2024
This book is a short jocular summary of Ned Kelly canon. What I loved about it is that it is an OBJECTIVE summary of Ned Kelly which is important to ME, a person who needed to know the answer to 'Ned Kelly: Good or Bad?' for the last all my entire life, day after day after DAY.
There were heaps of Fun Facts in here that I never heard of before and mate you bet your sweet arse I came into this fucking jazzed up on them Ned facts so because the book is less than 100 pages shit I highly recommend giving her a go FIVE STARS
There were heaps of Fun Facts in here that I never heard of before and mate you bet your sweet arse I came into this fucking jazzed up on them Ned facts so because the book is less than 100 pages shit I highly recommend giving her a go FIVE STARS
July 31, 2024
I enjoyed this non-fiction novel about Ned Kelly. As Carole Wilkinson points out, interest in Ned Kelly and myths and stories about him abound more than 100 years after he was hanged.
The book included firsthand evidence in the form of letters dictated by Ned Kelly and newspaper articles from the time. It also included creative thoughts of people interacting with Ned. Overall, it is a captivating story about Ned Kelly that stimulates more questions about him.
Recommended for readers eight years and older.
The book included firsthand evidence in the form of letters dictated by Ned Kelly and newspaper articles from the time. It also included creative thoughts of people interacting with Ned. Overall, it is a captivating story about Ned Kelly that stimulates more questions about him.
Recommended for readers eight years and older.
June 6, 2021
As I'm reading this book at school I need to slip a copy to read as I cant get one of my own as I don't have the money and this is a assessment is due on Wednesday and as every high school they have strict rules and one of them is to have all your work completed as its Monday and as this was made for a revue its a good book so if anyone reads this please tell me were I can read a copy
May 14, 2017
Pretty cool. Ned Kelly was a rad guy
June 4, 2018
I think that the book is amazng
September 3, 2018
This book is very good.I enjoy how the author writes all the things leading up to his death
May 19, 2020
IT WILL BE GOOD
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Want to Read
July 20, 2020i want to read this book
August 23, 2020
I don’t know how to read the dam book
This is trash😤🤮
This is trash😤🤮
September 7, 2020
AMAZING! Very helpful, assessment for me tomorrow? No problem.
September 13, 2020
HOW DO I READ IT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE
Read
February 28, 2022it was good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 2, 2022
read this 4 school
August 10, 2022
i like this book its i really good book you should read it
Read
August 16, 2022Its ok
Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews