As John Clarke outlines in his foreward, in 1965 an unusual book called Let Stalk Strine (Let’s talk Australia) thumped onto the nearly bare humour section. It was apparently written by a man named Professor Afferbeck Lauder (Professor Alphabetical Order) explaining how to speak in an Australian accent. This important little book contained essential phrases such as ‘How much is it?’, Glorious home’ and ‘How are you going?’ and soon became a household name as a book that translated useful expressions from Strine into English to the general amusement of both sides. Other volumes soon followed including Nose Tone Unturned and Fraffly Well Spoken and Fraffly Suite; the latter two being guides to the strangled dialect of the English upper middle class.

Reproduced with Al Terego’s original illustrations with typical conversations pictorially represented as they would appear in real life, this collection remains a graaate in syt to Australian speech over the decades.