Lost for Words

Are your ears on straight? * Now, 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, candid lingo of 1940s, 50s and 60s Australia.

Hugh Lunn has spent sixteen years collecting 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, get real, puh-leese, whatever...

Arranged in quirky themes such as 'Lies your mother told you', 'Mrs Kerfoops', 'Getting above your station', 'Mutton dressed as lamb', and 'Hell to pay', Lost for Words also includes a fifteen-part 'radio serial' about 'Bert and Grace and their trials and 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!

Hugh Lunn has written many best-selling books about his life, including Over the Top With Jim, which is Australia's all-time best-selling childhood memoir. Before becoming a full-time author, Hugh's journalism won three Walkley Awards for feature writing. He also won The Age Book of the Year for Vietnam: A Reporter's War. 

Author: Hugh Lunn 

Publisher: ABC

Released Date: 2006

ISBN: 9780733317590