Bill Wannan

//Bill Wannan
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  • A rich and varied treasure house of Australiana with a range of material to suit every taste and interest. This is the virtue of such a book for, within this single volume are collected extracts from every field and aspect of Australian life. Such diverse elements as the humour of 'Mo' and Lennie Lower, the poetry of Henry Kendall and Adam Lindsay Gordon, reminiscences of the famous, and quotations from statesmen, scholars and scoundrels, are united by this theme. There is something for every day. Illustrated with archival black and white photographs and illustrations.

  • A selection from classic Australian authors... Stories in this volume: Death of a Brumby, Boland Robinson; The Boundary-Rider's Goanna, Spoils to the Victor and King of the Scrub,  Henry C. Lamond;The Grey Kangaroo, Alan Marshall; The Mullet and The Catch, Vance Palmer; The Good Season and Return of the Hunter, Frank Dalby Davison; The Gleam of His Wing, Eric Lambert; Bush Cats, Henry Lawson; Native Dog and The Perch, Dal Stivens; The Wedge-Tailed Eagle, Geoffrey Dutton; On The Reef and The Darling Cod, George Farwell; 'The Breaking', R. Wilkes Hunter; Emperors, John Bechervaise; Crows, Dowell O'Reilly; The Pelican and Gun Dog, Cecil Mann; In Crocodile Land, Ion Idriess; Painted Finches, Katharine Susannah Prichard; The White Dingo, Younger Hillman; The Plover, M. Barnard Brereton; The Overseer, Jack Hyett; The Great Stampede, Carl Warbuton and W.K. Robertson; The Hunter, E. Dithmack; Old Harry's Groper, W.N. Scott.
  • This book, which has nothing to do with anything, owes nothing to almost everyone including Robert Burns, Napoleon, Graeme Green, Livingstone Hopkins, Longfellow, John Bull, Guiseppe Verdi, Daniel Defoe, Lord Byron and others. It owes a lot to Bill Wannan, who over the years has pandered to his sudden rushes of comic inspiration and has strayed into a world of dreadful puns, comic narrative, biographies brief and banal, philosophical snatches and illustrated idiocy. His assiduous filing has allowed the accumulation of these visual and verbal tid-bits for the delectation of mankind.  So if you want to knit a scarf for a giraffe, see Mr. Hyde's last confession, understand the difference between a ballad and a ballade, read of the historic meeting between William Wordsworth and the Inspector of Stamps, find out who was the world's most eligible vandal - then this book is for you.  Illustrated.
  • A collection of Aussie popular humor:  a feast of fables, sayings, rhymes, recitations, local characters and tales tall and short; there's new chums and strangers, parsons and preachers, boasters and braggarts, swagmen and sundowners and - of course - pubs and publicans - all  told by Aussies in typical Aussie manner. First published as Fair Go, Spinner. Illustrated by Vane Lindsay.
  • Here is a roistering view of Australian from the time of the First Fleet onward, as seen by men and women who expressed their opinions of the country and each other in language forthright, abusive, wistful or cheerful.   Part One is devoted to popular (and uniquely Australian) sayings, jests, rhymes, anecodotes and yarns...The bushman recounted, 'When I was doin' a bit o' grave diggin' at Guyra, it so was so perishin' cold there one winter we were forced  to demand two weeks' notice of anyone who was goin' to die. It took us that long to dig the hole.' Part Two is Australian Perspectives 1788 - 1918: Farmer's Pride and Prisoner's Hell; The Southern El Dorado (includes a recipe for damper and Black Swans as Table Birds...); An Album of Victoriana; Land of Hope and Glory. You won't get anything more dinki-di than this volume.
  • New chums, bosses and braggarts have long been traditional butts of Aussie humour, which usually relies for much of its effect on dead-pan delivery. For sheer presence of mind, take the swaggie caught by the squatter in the act of killing a sheep: 'Caught red-handed!' roars the squatter.  'Yes! And I'll kill and man's sheep that tries and bites me!' came the undaunted reply.  Then there's the tall story vein of humour, like the one about the seize of the mozzies at a certain waterhole near Newcastle. The shaggy dog story is yet another favourite brand of Australian humour to be found in this entertaining collection of funny yarns and verses. Illustrated by Vane Lindesay.
  • A treasury of all things Australian. Chapters include:  Popular Sayings, Jests, Rhymes and Anecdotes: Game?!  He's as game as Ned Kelly! No more sense than a koala bear, an' not half as good-lookin'. Or: He's as mad as a gum tree full o' galahs! Heroes and Rebels: Ben Hall and Ned Kelly, of course - and Peter Lalor, The Man With The Donkey and Les Darcy; The Yarn-SpinnersSilent Australians, Casual Australians, Bullockies, Shearers, Station Cooks, Swaggies and yet more characters but also including: Soldier Yarns, Bush Directions, Bushmen's Dogs and of course, Dad and Dave; Superstitions and Fallacies: Craig's Dream, Snake-Fallacies, The Town That Lost and more; Place Lore: Place names including - naturally - Fisher's Ghost Creek, Bread and Dripping Valley, The Never-Never and some local anomalies - The Man  Who Rode The Bull Through Wagga, the Dog on the Tucker Box; The Man from Snowy River and humorous signs; Australianisms: The Larrikin, the Push, Buckley's Chance, Furphy, Wowsers, Sundowners, Bunyips, Diggers and Drongoes; Perspectives: Contemporary accounts of Convicts and Governors, The Gold Diggings, Squatters and Selectors, Immigrants, Early Trade Unionism and Republicanism and Nationalism.
  • Australian insults, invective, ridicule and abuse as only Australians could invent!  From lords and ladies, governors and generals and even Ned Kelly - on all topics from Explosive Explorers to Royalty Rebuked.  Here is some of the real Australian history, some of it in satirical verse, such as Wowsers by Anon, 1911: For six days long they lie and cheat...And on the seventh at Church they meet...To render to the Lord their God...A threepenny bit, with a holy nod; And then they part with unctuous smile - and a prayer to prosper the next weeks guile. Or this, spotted on the headstone of an old-time Murray River settler's grave: He revelled 'neath the moon; He slept beneath the sun; He lives a life of going-to-do - And died with nothing done.