"My childhood was very short. It ended soon after my twelfth birthday in early 1952." Thus begins a most extraordinary biography. Ken Hall spent much of his early life in hospital - at twelve he was moved from the children's ward to the terminal adult ward, where he was surrounded by old dying men. As a consequence he never learnt to read or write.The doctors insisted he was going to die but he survived. As he grew older, he struggled in the face of calculated cruelty to lead a norm al life in a society which equates illiteracy with idiocy. His attempts to conceal his reading problems and his determination to make his own way despite continuing ill health make for sometimes hilarious, sometimes painful, but always compelling reading. Ken Hall is the quintessence of the ordinary Aussie bloke, but there is nothing ordinary about his courage, strength and determination. This is a moving story, yet has nothing of the tragic about it. Rather, it reads like a rollicking yarn full of larrikin gusto, occasionally angry, mostly very funny, and without a trace of self-pity. Ken, now 61, is currently developing 'Radio for all Australians', a national radio service for disadvantaged people. He still can't read or write. In one of those once-in-a-lifetime coincidences he met writer Monika McFerran. Together they worked for two years to produce this book. With great skill Monika has shaped the raw material of a life, while fully retaining Ken's unique voice. The result is a spellbinding narrative.