Larrikinland

Comedian Ben Pobjie traverses the history of Australian larrikins, how the meaning of larrikin has changed and what it forgives.


There is no higher praise in Australian life than to be called a larrikin. All our greatest cultural icons, from Shane Warne to Steve Irwin to Scott Cam to Dawn Fraser and now Sam Kerr, are granted elite status by having the term 'larrikin' bestowed upon them. Those of our great and good who do not qualify yearn to do so, and politicians will go to enormous effort and expense to play up their larrikinesque qualities in the hopes of being tagged with the most holy of epithets.


Larrikinland examines the larrikin phenomenon from start to finish—well, as close to the finish as we've gotten so far. It's a book about language, culture and history, and about how the past and the present are always talking to each other. With his trademark humour, Ben Pobjie does a deep dive into the world of larrikins, from the origins of the term in England, to the adoption of it as a pejorative for the undesirables of colonial Australia, to its evolution into an accolade for Aussie royalty.


'Engaging and entertaining – the way history should be.' - Noni Hazlehurst


'A surgical excavation of the Australian character. Ben Pobjie's writing is so bold, brave and irreverent that he runs a high risk of being labelled a larrikin himself.' - Sammy J