100 books like Ned Kelly

By Peter FitzSimons,

Here are 100 books that Ned Kelly fans have personally recommended if you like Ned Kelly. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of True History of the Kelly Gang

Aidan Phelan Author Of Glenrowan

From my list on Ned Kelly for beginners.

Why am I passionate about this?

I fell in love with Australian history on a school camp to Beechworth, which was also my first introduction to Ned Kelly. As I got older, after having already tried to establish a career trajectory as an English teacher, I realised my passion for writing and history could help me create the books and media that I wished I could access, as well as be a place to store all those decades of research sitting in my head. My fascination with psychology, true crime, and Australian colonial history naturally reached a meeting point with the Australian bushrangers: the bandits that terrorised Australia for over a hundred years, the most infamous of whom was Ned Kelly.

Aidan's book list on Ned Kelly for beginners

Aidan Phelan Why did Aidan love this book?

 A controversial pick, but I believe this is the finest fictionalised version of Ned's life story written so far. Carey captures a very authentic sense of Ned’s voice and character by basing the book heavily on Ian Jones’ work and the Jerilderie Letter that Ned wrote with gang member Joe Byrne. It retains enough of the truth to craft a realistic world for his creations to exist in, and blends so well with his inventions, that someone unaware that the book is fiction will have a hard time working out some of the fact from the fiction. It is lyrical, powerful, and helped turbo-boost interest in the Kelly legend at a time when it had begun to taper off somewhat.

By Peter Carey,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked True History of the Kelly Gang as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, TO BE RELEASED IN CINEMAS 28TH FEBRUARY 2020

'Extraordinary . . . So mesmerising and moving.' Mail on Sunday

'Vastly entertaining.' New York Times

To the authorities in pursuit of him, Ned Kelly is a horse thief, bank robber and police-killer. But to his fellow Australians, Kelly is their own Robin Hood. In a dazzling act of ventriloquism, Peter Carey's Booker Prize-winning novel of adventure and heroism brings the famous bushranger wildly and passionately to life.


Book cover of Ned Kelly: A Short Life

Aidan Phelan Author Of Glenrowan

From my list on Ned Kelly for beginners.

Why am I passionate about this?

I fell in love with Australian history on a school camp to Beechworth, which was also my first introduction to Ned Kelly. As I got older, after having already tried to establish a career trajectory as an English teacher, I realised my passion for writing and history could help me create the books and media that I wished I could access, as well as be a place to store all those decades of research sitting in my head. My fascination with psychology, true crime, and Australian colonial history naturally reached a meeting point with the Australian bushrangers: the bandits that terrorised Australia for over a hundred years, the most infamous of whom was Ned Kelly.

Aidan's book list on Ned Kelly for beginners

Aidan Phelan Why did Aidan love this book?

This is treated like a Bible by “Nedheads” (Ned Kelly buffs) for its detail as much as Jones’ compelling writing style. This was the culmination of decades of Jones’ own research into the Kelly saga that involved sifting through the many disorganised archives and even interviewing people who knew the key players personally. It is the book that set many people off on a journey to find out as much as they could about this incredible period of Australian history and helped revitalise the Kelly legend.

By Ian Jones,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ned Kelly as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Every nation has a lovable bandit/rebel/folk hero in the mould of Robin Hood and Rob Roy. But Ned Kelly is an uncomfortable hero - he killed policemen, robbed banks, stole horses from squatters...But he became a champion of the rural underclass and an enemy of arrogant officialdom.
Ned Kelly was of Irish stock - to some, he embodied the splendid rebel spirit of the Irish, to others he was the awful example of what the Irish Australian was capable of in opposition to British law.
Ned Kelly became increasingly prominent in Australia's artistic life - in paintings, literature, poetry, drama,…


Book cover of Ned Kelly's Last Days: Setting the Record Straight on the Death of an Outlaw

Aidan Phelan Author Of Glenrowan

From my list on Ned Kelly for beginners.

Why am I passionate about this?

I fell in love with Australian history on a school camp to Beechworth, which was also my first introduction to Ned Kelly. As I got older, after having already tried to establish a career trajectory as an English teacher, I realised my passion for writing and history could help me create the books and media that I wished I could access, as well as be a place to store all those decades of research sitting in my head. My fascination with psychology, true crime, and Australian colonial history naturally reached a meeting point with the Australian bushrangers: the bandits that terrorised Australia for over a hundred years, the most infamous of whom was Ned Kelly.

Aidan's book list on Ned Kelly for beginners

Aidan Phelan Why did Aidan love this book?

This book was revelatory for me as it was the first book about Ned Kelly I read that was neutral about Ned himself. Every other book I had come across to that point was focused on either lionising Ned or demonising him, while this was more concerned with the legal processes which put him on the gallows. It really highlighted for me the way that, in many ways, Ned was his own worst enemy but the cards were well and truly attacked against him by the end.

By Alex C Castles,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ned Kelly's Last Days as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ned Kelly - Australia's beloved national icon - was once just a bushranger who had to be punished for his crimes. In 1880, everyone wanted him dead. There are many stories that form the Kelly myth. But the side of the story rarely told is what really happened in the 137 days between Ned's last stand at Glenrowan and the day the hangman's noose was placed around his neck. Who was with him in his last hours, and why did he have so many powerful enemies? Ned Kelly's Last Days exposes the blatant cover-ups, the corruption and the rampant press…


Book cover of The Kelly Hunters

Aidan Phelan Author Of Glenrowan

From my list on Ned Kelly for beginners.

Why am I passionate about this?

I fell in love with Australian history on a school camp to Beechworth, which was also my first introduction to Ned Kelly. As I got older, after having already tried to establish a career trajectory as an English teacher, I realised my passion for writing and history could help me create the books and media that I wished I could access, as well as be a place to store all those decades of research sitting in my head. My fascination with psychology, true crime, and Australian colonial history naturally reached a meeting point with the Australian bushrangers: the bandits that terrorised Australia for over a hundred years, the most infamous of whom was Ned Kelly.

Aidan's book list on Ned Kelly for beginners

Aidan Phelan Why did Aidan love this book?

What sets this book apart from Kieza’s other book on the Kelly story, Mrs. Kelly, is that it concentrates on telling the stories of the men who tracked the outlaws down, many of whom were largely forgotten, including the Aboriginal trackers who were employed to track the gang in the Australian bush. As is the trend in such books, the history is written in a style more akin to a novel which makes it easy to digest. Kieza also positions himself firmly on the side that opposes the notion of Ned Kelly as a folk hero, which creates a good counterpoint to the majority of books on the subject.

By Grantlee Kieza,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Kelly Hunters as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The desperate manhunt to bring down Australia's most notorious outlaw



When Ned Kelly and his band of young tearaways ambushed and killed three brave policemen in a remote mountain camp in 1878, they sparked the biggest and most expensive manhunt Australia had seen. The desperate search would end when Kelly and his gang, wearing suits of armour, tried to derail a train before waging their final bloody gun battle with police in the small Victorian town of Glenrowan.

In the 20 months between those shootouts and aided by a network of informers, hundreds of lawmen, soldiers, undercover agents and a…


Book cover of Bitter Wash Road

Sherryl Clark Author Of Mad, Bad and Dead

From my list on Australian crime to have you on the edge of your seat.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started reading crime fiction as a teenager, so maybe it was inevitable that one day I would start writing it. I began with short stories, but then found an idea for a novel that wouldn’t let me go. One small paragraph about a tape recording left by a dead man. The books I love reading now are often set in small towns and communities, like the one I grew up in, where normal people tend to hide the worst secrets! Hidden motivations and seeing how the past plays out in the present are two elements I love in crime fiction—they help to work out who the killer is.

Sherryl's book list on Australian crime to have you on the edge of your seat

Sherryl Clark Why did Sherryl love this book?

Tiverton, the setting for this book, is a typical outback small town—derelict houses, one pub, a harsh landscape, and a policeman back in uniform after a corruption scandal back in the big city. Hirsch’s patrol area is huge and he’s often as much a social worker as a police officer. He’s an outcast in all senses of the word, but his dogged determination to do his job right leads him into all sorts of trouble. I love the setting, the endless roads, the eccentricities of people living in the back of nowhere, and the murder mystery that takes you where you (and Hirsch) least expect it.

By Garry Disher,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Bitter Wash Road as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Disher shows that he is a top-class writer' - THE TIMES

'Vivid and visceral, combined with Disher's usual deft plotting' - GUARDIAN

'One of Australia's most admired novelists' - SUNDAY TIMES
________________________________________

ONE DEAD-END POSTING. ONE DEAD BODY.
A TRAGIC ACCIDENT? THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK...

Constable Paul 'Hirsch' Hirschhausen is a whistle-blower. Formerly a promising metropolitan detective, now hated and despised, he's been exiled to a one-cop station in South Australia's wheatbelt. So when he heads up Bitter Wash Road to investigate gunfire and finds himself cut off without backup, there are two possibilities. Either he's found…


Book cover of Justice in Kelly Country: The Story of the Cop Who Hunted Australia's Most Notorious Bushrangers

Sandi Logan Author Of Betrayed: The incredible untold inside story of the two most unlikely drug-running grannies in Australian history

From my list on life’s adventures featuring crime, drugs, and travel.

Why am I passionate about this?

I learned from a young age to question everything. The law always interested me, but I was an impatient high school graduate who instead completed a journalism cadetship in Sydney, Australia. I always loved police reporting and the ability to get inside the ‘real’ story where few others could. There is a certain pleasure observing the lives of (witting or unwitting) criminals and an element of “there by the grace…” too! I’ve always empathised with the underdog and the Drug Grannies were indeed just that. I believed there was more to their story. Earning their trust was important. I threw myself into their fight – more an activist than a journalist!

Sandi's book list on life’s adventures featuring crime, drugs, and travel

Sandi Logan Why did Sandi love this book?

There would be few Australians who didn’t know the name Ned Kelly, but there are likely many Australians who are uncertain whether Kelly was a good guy (a la Robin Hood) or a down-and-out bushranger scoundrel (i.e., bad guy).

The research that has gone into this wonderful story is breathtaking, and the fact the author is a distant relative of one of the policemen who hunted Ned Kelly is all the more remarkable. It’s about the law, justice, payback, character, and, importantly, values. The book brings a bygone rural era back to life, with real page-turning impetus lacing the suspense and drama in a way few history books offer.

Read this if you love real-life stories and want to learn more about Australia’s most notorious criminal.

By Lachlan Strahan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Justice in Kelly Country as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Partway through the Jerilderie Letter, Ned Kelly accused Senior Constable Anthony Strahan of threatening him: ‘he would shoot me … like a dog.’ Those few fateful words have echoed through Australian history and been the cause of much bloodshed and violence. They ushered in a national myth: the legend of the Kelly Gang. For two days after Anthony reputedly made his threat, Ned and his gang shot dead three police in an event now known as the Stringybark Creek killings. Ned’s reason for opening fire? He thought one cop was Anthony. Lachlan Strahan, Anthony’s great-great-grandson, grew up believing Ned Kelly…


Book cover of The Magic Pudding: The Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum

Victoria Twead Author Of Dear Fran, Love Dulcie: Life and Death in the Hills and Hollows of Bygone Australia

From my list on Australia (to read before you visit).

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m Victoria Twead, the New York Times bestselling author of Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools and the Old Fools series. However, after living in a remote mountain village in Spain for eleven years, and owning probably the most dangerous cockerel in Europe, we migrated to Australia to watch our new granddaughters thrive amongst kangaroos and koalas. We love Australia, it is our home now. Another joyous life-chapter has begun.

Victoria's book list on Australia (to read before you visit)

Victoria Twead Why did Victoria love this book?

When I was a little girl, I remember being given this book, and I loved it. I read it from cover to cover, again and again, which fired my fascination for Australia. Seriously, who wouldn’t be enthralled by a bad-tempered pudding with impossibly skinny arms and legs, called Albert?

Perhaps The Magic Pudding had a large part in my choice to leave Europe and put down roots in the fabulous country of Australia. The book was first published in 1918 but that just proves how well it has stood the test of time.

By Norman Lindsay,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Magic Pudding as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Magic Pudding - Being the Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff by Norman Lindsay.

The Magic Pudding: Being The Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff is an Australian children's book written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay. It is a comic fantasy, and a classic of Australian children's literature. The story is set in Australia with humans mixing with anthropomorphic animals. It tells of a magic pudding which, no matter how often it is eaten, always reforms in order to be eaten again. It is owned by three…


Book cover of Nottingham

Tim Facciola Author Of A Vengeful Realm: The Scales of Balance - Book 1

From my list on epic fantasy with unforgettable characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

Psychology, the human condition, and interpersonal relationships fascinate me. I’ve studied the psychology of stories, their effect on readers, and things like moral development to understand better how to structure growth arcs and falls from grace in my writing. However, these studies have also changed the way I consume stories. Through books, movies, and video games, I can’t help but analyze story structure and its impact on its audience. As an author of epic fantasy, I am also active on TikTok and Instagram, reviewing stories and their structures and talking about all things fantasy. I hope you enjoy the stories on this list as much as I have!

Tim's book list on epic fantasy with unforgettable characters

Tim Facciola Why did Tim love this book?

If you’ve read all of the books on this list and are looking for something new, this book is the story of Robin Hood with all the backstabbing, politicking, and civil unrest of A Game of Thrones. Though not “Fantasy” (there is no magic, second-world, divine intervention, etc), this historical fiction novel was no less epic, and I would be remiss to leave it off this list.

As someone who exclusively reads fantasy and some sci-fi, I find this story (and its sequel, Lionhearts) to fit right into my reading list. The use of character perspective was so powerful because despite there being six primary POV characters who are diametrically opposed to one another in different ways, I somehow found myself rooting for all of them. Each character was so convincing in their justifications and righteousness that every chapter constantly reflected on who was in the right.

This…

By Nathan Makaryk,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Nottingham as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

No king. No rules.

“The most pleasurable reading experience I've had since first discovering George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.” ― Bryan Cogman, Co-Executive Producer and Writer, Game of Thrones

Nathan Makaryk's epic and daring debut rewrites the Robin Hood legend, giving voice to those history never mentioned and challenging who's really a hero and a villain.

England, 1191. King Richard is half a world away, fighting for God and his own ambition. Back home, his country languishes, bankrupt and on the verge of anarchy. People with power are running unchecked. People without are growing angry. And…


Book cover of The Fires of Heaven

Jordan Rivet Author Of Curse Painter

From my list on people who had a crush on Disney’s Robin Hood.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a lifelong fantasy reader who sometimes gets tired of dark, brooding heroes. I love fast-talkers and troublemakers, who can be charming and funny while performing their daring deeds. Think: Antonio Banderas as Zorro or Disney’s fox version of Robin Hood. These characters throw themselves into danger to protect the people they love—often with a wink and a smile. In Curse Painter, a girl with a dark power gets recruited by an outlaw leader, Archer, who brings humor and light into her world when she needs it most. Together, they set out to do good by any means necessary. These five books feature more Robin Hood-like characters to love!

Jordan's book list on people who had a crush on Disney’s Robin Hood

Jordan Rivet Why did Jordan love this book?

This is the fifth book in the epic Wheel of Time series. You should start with the first book, The Eye of the World, but I’m recommending this one because it’s when Mat Cauthon starts to come into his own as a character. Mat is incorrigible, a gambler and a rascal with a secret heart of bravery and self-sacrifice—not that he’d ever admit it! Mat makes mistakes and puts his foot in his mouth, but you can’t help loving him for it. His growth as a character throughout the series is unmatched, and he’s one of my favorite examples of the charming, flawed ne’er-do-well who ends up saving the day.

By Robert Jordan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Fires of Heaven as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

The Wheel of Time is now an original series on Prime Video, starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine!

In The Fires of Heaven, the fifth novel in Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time®, four of the most powerful Forsaken band together against the Champion of Light, Rand al’Thor.

Prophesized to defeat the Dark One, Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, has upset the balance of power across the land. Shaido Aiel are on the march, ravaging everything in their path. The White Tower's Amyrlin has been deposed, turning the Aes Sedai against one another.…


Book cover of The Code

William Fietzer Author Of Metadata Murders

From my list on technothrillers with a cyber-security protagonist.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by the potential of the Internet ever since I chaired the Metadata subcommittee for the American Library Association. Here was a device capable of benefiting lives or destroying mankind simultaneously. Particularly intriguing was its almost supernatural ability to accomplish these ends as if we were gods beyond the realms of morality or accountability. I’m not a very spiritual person, but such potential calls out for revising our old worldviews and/or exploring new ways of coping with our burgeoning technical prowess and moral responsibilities. Dealing with these conflicts is what I write about and what stories from other authors I recommend to readers.

William's book list on technothrillers with a cyber-security protagonist

William Fietzer Why did William love this book?

The plot twist at the beginning delighted me. Anti-heroine and computer hacker Nina Walker plays Robin Hood on behalf of her grandmother and pays the price—a mysterious man named Carter kidnaps and forces her to return the money she stole to the other unpaid claimants. But Carter, too, has been blackmailed by the gangster Dante to retrieve the funds and has other personal motivations for dealing with him.

This twist sets up unique moral dilemmas for both characters. Though needing each other to survive, each must decide whether their growing attraction for each other outweighs their family bonds. It is a fine thriller that operates on several levels; my sole reservation is how the book’s character descriptions provide only shadowy outlines instead of fully-fleshed individuals.

By Brooke Sivendra,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Code as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Look over your shoulder, you’re not alone…

When Nina's disabled grandmother’s insurance company refuses to pay for a recent hospital admission, the determined IT assistant decides she’ll teach them a lesson. Nina hacks their system, steals their data, and demands a ransom. Upon payment, she distributes the money to their customers—people like her grandmother who need it to survive. But not everyone sees her as a modern-day Robin Hood. Despite good intentions, her actions are...well, illegal.

Carter’s life—and career—is built on secrets that haunt him while he sleeps. Carter wants to leave it all behind him, but when his brother…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Robin Hood, Australia, and presidential biography?

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Australia 332 books