Note: This episode - like all old and new regular episodes - is free for everyone to listen to.

I'm very pleased to present an exclusive audio version of the first 20 pages of my new book Hanging Ned Kelly, which is published this week by Affirm Press. Here's what it's about:

HANGING NED KELLY

When it came time to hang Ned Kelly, the deed fell to the nightman-turned-quack-doctor-turned-drunken-chicken-thief Elijah Upjohn. Such is life indeed.

Upjohn was the latest in a long line of 19th century flogging hangmen who were allowed to run amok because they did the dirty work of the establishment that allowed officials to keep their hands clean. Despite being duly appointed ‘finishers of the law’, Upjohn and his fellow boozing bunglers were so hated they were often hunted by angry mobs.

In Hanging Ned Kelly, the tale of Elijah Upjohn becomes the rusty scalpel that slices open the underbelly of colonial Victoria – an underworld seething with serial killers, clueless cops, larrikin vigilantes, renegade reporters, racist settlers, furious fallen women and cunning waxwork showmen. Looming over them all: the depraved hangmen... and Australia's most infamous outlaw.

Hanging Ned Kelly is available on 27 September at all good bookstores and online retailers.

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