Not a Pig. Not from Guinea.: Misleading Places of Origin in Everyday English

ANDREW TAUBMAN was born at an early age – the mid 20th century to be imprecise – in the bustling wastelands of what was then either outer suburban Sydney or the inner out-back, depending on which way you faced. Of his upbringing he says little and, by an act of will, remembers less. His ability to feign knowledgeability has stood him in good stead throughout his life, as the astute reader of the present volume will rapidly confirm. His unbecoming glee on those occasions he is able to slip a letter past a newspaper editor when they are too busy to pay full attention verges on the unhealthy. He lives in the penthouse of a cheesy cottage with absolute waterfront in the basement alongside two dogs, a feral budgerigar, a cockatrice and a basilisk, a long suffering family – whose, he is not sure – and is a veterate liar. This is his first book.