"May well prove to have more layers of appeal for readers than a mille-feuille... a well-crafted narrative packed with incedent, villains and comedy... a portrait of a brave youth... story that needed to be told." The Australian

Ken Hall spent much of his early life in hospital - at tweleve he was moved from the children's ward to the adult terminal ward - and as a consequence he never learned to read or write. The doctors insisted he was going to die but he survived and struggled to lead a normal life in a society which eauates illiteracy with idiocy. This is a moving story, but it reads like a rollicking yarn full of larrikin gusto as Ken describes without a trace of self-pity his sometimes disastrous but frequently hilarious experiences as a jackeroo, drover, manual trade pbk, 288pp + 16pp b/w photos