Reginald Wells' explosive tales of life in rural Australia.

Previously only circulated in ragged samizdat manuscript, this bizarre collection of short stories, at once hilarious, profane, bawdy, tawdry, and unlikely, is now available in an authoritative version. Destined to become an Australian classic. Horrifyingly vulgar, disgustingly honest, and only believable if you discount the possibility that humans can be in any way admirable.

Not everyone is happy at the rural, Australian way of life depicted in these stories, of course. The eminent Sir Pelham Corrie has written: "One final word. It is not inconceivable that one day some ignorant, jumped-up, crypto-intellectual johnny-come-lately, academic bounder will come along and try to claim that the central character in these stories, the so-called 'Uncle Vern', was some kind of modern Sisyphus pushing rocks downhill, a modern Prometheus giving matches to children, some kind of symbol of our times. Well, he certainly is not that. He is nothing but a mountebank, and a living slur on the good name of decent rural folk who are and always have been and always will be the backbone of this great nation of ours."

So don't say you weren't warned. Not recommended for anyone under the age of eighteen. Not recommended for those of delicate or sophisticated taste.