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This week I don’t have a slang photo to use with my post. However, I do have a book review I wrote a few years ago.
My full review may be read by clicking this link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26116447-red-tide
My second consecutive Billy Knight ‘thriller’ by Jeff Lindsay, and I must confess that it was a thrill to read/listen to the last pages of this, again, boring ‘thriller’. If anything it was less interesting than Billy Knight #1……..
…….Finally as an Australian reader (and reviewer) may I suggest that taking a swipe at Australia and anything Australian (or any other nationality, for that matter) is not the way to win friends and influence people: especially when it happens in each of Billy Knight’s books.
“Your name’s Billy, not Silly” said Aussie character Nicky who always seemed a have a few Kangaroos loose in the top paddock. Lindsay then proceeded with a lengthy description of Australian rhyming slang. Lindsay concludes this must be because we name our towns/places with names such as Kalgoorlie (Western Australia), Woolloomooloo and Wollongong (New South Wales). Sure there are many place names which are taken directly or are derivatives of Native Australian local languages/dialects. In both Billy Knight 1 & 2, Lindsay is happy to take the mickey out of Nicky
I would suggest he have a bopeep (look) in his own backyard before taking the micky
out of anyone again. At least get the research right. Click, or copy and paste this link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of…
to find a list of Native American Place names which have direct links to, or origins from either Native American, Mexican, Polynesian or Athabaskan languages.
My concluding paragraph of my review is as follows…..
Blimey! If this bloke had got off his Khyber Pass and bothered to take a Captain Cook on the world wide web, or even get on the old Dog an’ Bone and asked someone who might know, he would have quickly learned, maybe, that Aussie rhymin’ slang and our unusual place names have little in common. Why? ‘Coz one is local, the other originates in the Mother Country with a few Down Under twists. With better research this could a bin a ripsnorter of a read. Instead it’s a Barry Crocker!
Only ONE star from this reader and no more Billy Knight thrillers for me.
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Translation below if you did not follow…….. explanations in BOLD
Blimey (A British expression of surprise. Down Under the word STREWTH is often used in similar fashion)! If this bloke had got off his Khyber Pass (Arse) and bothered to take a Captain Cook (look) on the world wide web, or even get on the old Dog an’ Bone (Phone) and asked someone who might know, he would have quickly learned, maybe, that Aussie rhymin’ slang and our unusual place names have little in common. Why? ‘Coz (Because) one is local, the other originates in the Mother Country (Great Britain) with a few Down Under twists. With better research this could a bin/been a ripsnorter (great) of a read. Instead it’s a Barry Crocker (shocker)!
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Just in case any reader thinks I have been hard on Jeff Lindsay, please read my review of Mandy Magro’s Rosalee Station. Ms Magro is an Australian author and I like to support local authors as I am sure other readers support their local authors. I, along with several other readers thought little of Magro’s overuse of Aussie Slang.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11354566-rosalee-station