Title: Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang Author: Paul Baker Publisher: Continuum RRP: $35.00 (AUD) Polari, or gayspeak, is an original gay slang that gained much of its fame in the swinging yet sheltered gay life of the 1950s and 60s in the UK. Now rarely used or heard, polari is responsible for the injection of idiomatic terms like 'naff' (Not Available For Fucking) and glory-hole in the common english language, and much gay slang itself, like butch, nelly and rim all developed from a bunch of poofs and dykes who wanted to communicate with each other but not the hetero world beyond. Now comes Paul Baker's Fantabulosa, an impressively thorough compendium of the Queen's Latin and the slang of the schlong. Not only do I now know two meanings of the verb felch, but my grandmother and me (I took the dictionary to share with her) are also familiar with oreo sex, road game and more than fifty synonyms for the word cock. Included here is a handy guide to the hanky code (and no, I did not share my preferences with Gran on this one) and enough acronyms to clog up a bottomless pit. Or a pitted bottom. Fantabulosa serves best as a reference tome, whether you're trying to decipher the personals in the paper (APS?), or you're a writer or a wanton, dramatic existentialist searching for another word for your ass, like mangina or darkstar. The book is also a remarkable look into how societies, bound together by little more than a taste for the same set of genitals, can develop a fully-formed creative language for its own deviant purposes. Now if you'll excuse me, I see a schwa whose flue I must clean.