Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%
Skip to main content
Absolutely Revolting
Fiction

The madness of the flesh that we call love

Sister Kate by Jean Bedford

by Frances McInherny •
November 1982, no. 46

Sister Kate by Jean Bedford

Penguin, $4.95

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

This is a very fine first novel by Jean Bedford. Her first publication was the collection of short stories, Country Girl Again, published by Sisters Press in 1978. Sister Kate justly deserves to be one of the two bestsellers in Melbourne.

The novel traces the life of Kate Kelly, sister of the famous Ned, and opens when Kate is twelve and Edward just returned from a three-year stint in Pentridge. He is shocked and outraged to learn that his brother, Jim, a mere sixteen-year-old, has been arrested for horse stealing and sent to Pentridge also. Ned is nineteen. Kate remarks:         

 


Continue reading for only $10 per month.
Subscribe and gain full access to Australian Book Review.

Already a subscriber? .
If you need assistance, feel free to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Leave a comment

Sister Kate by Jean Bedford

Penguin, $4.95

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

From the New Issue

A Life in Letters
Letters

A Life in Letters: A new light on Simone Weil by Robert Chevanier and André A. Devaux, translated from French by Nicholas Elliott

by Scott Stephens
‘Land rights interrupted?: How Whitlam’s dismissal changed the history of First Nations land repossession’ by Heidi Norman and Francis Markham
Commentary

‘Land rights interrupted?: How Whitlam’s dismissal changed the history of First Nations land repossession’

by Heidi Norman and Francis Markham
Now, the People!: Revolution in the twenty-first century
History

Now, the People!: France’s populist left leader by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, translated from French by David Broder

by Peter McPhee
Prove It: A scientific guide for the post-truth era
Science

Prove It: Ready reckoner for post-truth age by Elizabeth Finkel

by Abi Stephenson

You May Also Like

Harriet Huxtable and the Purpose of Rats
Children's Fiction

Harriet Huxtable and the Purpose of Rats by Louise Pike

by Margaret Robson Kett
Dear Unknown Friend: The remarkable correspondence between American and Soviet women
History

Dear Unknown Friend: A diplomacy of women and letters by Alexis Peri

by Ebony Nilsson
Kevin Foster reviews Double Diamonds: Australian commandos in the Pacific War 1941-45 by Karl James
Military History

Kevin Foster reviews 'Double Diamonds: Australian commandos in the Pacific War 1941-45' by Karl James

Geordie Williamson reviews Arriving at Night by Lisa Merrifield
Fiction

Arriving at Night by Lisa Merrifield

by Geordie Williamson

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.

Submit comment