SOURCE: Taylor, D. J. “A Ventriloquist's Tale.” New Statesman 130, no. 4519 (8 January 2001): 42.

In the following review, Taylor comments that although Carey's conjectures regarding Ned Kelly's thoughts and actions in True History of the Kelly Gang are enjoyable, they ultimately render the story as a work of historical fiction rather than biography.

For a work explicitly promoted as a defence of the historical novel, A. S. Byatt's recent On Histories and Stories (Chatto and Windus) is oddly light on references to Peter Carey: just a couple of glancing mentions in among the analyses of Fitzgerald, Fowles, Golding and co. While no one expects exhaustiveness from a book with less than 200 pages, this neglect is something of a surprise, as few English language novelists of the past 20 years have played such dramatic and energetic games with history.

Jack Maggs (1997) wove all manner of devious patterns from the fog of early Victorian...