Lost for Words Australia's Lost Language in Words and Stories

"Are your ears on straight? No, she was an education. Who do you think you are? King Farouk? He's all mouth and trousers? I'd know his hide in a tannery. More's the pity. It's snowing down south! If these words ring a bell, then you remember the wonderful, colourful, candid lingo of the 1940s, 50s and 60s Australia. Hugh Lunn has spent sixteen years collecting the words and phrases that Australians once used everyday. As he points out, we have slowly given away our own rich language and have allowed it to be replaced by global TV shorthand: as if, you wish, get real, puh-leese, whatever ... Arranged in quirky themes such as 'Lies your mother told you', 'Mrs Kerfoops', 'Getting above your station', 'Mutton dressed up as lamb', and 'Hell to pay', 'Lost for words' also includes a fifteen part 'radio serial' about 'Bert and Grace and their trials an tribulations bringing up a family after the War'. Filled with humour and delightful surprises, reading 'Lost for words' is like bumping into long-lost but dearly loved friends. Let's keep in touch with them - and ask for our language back!" -- back cover.