Suffering from cerebral palsy, Len Somerville had a hard time at school, and left at the age of fourteen due, he said to 'teacher abuse' (Through the Eyes of Radio). He went picking apricots at Renmark, then got a job as a copy boy with a bicycle for a publishing firm in Adelaide.When he was found to have diabetes he was laid off, but, determined not to be dependent on a pension, he took on a variety of jobs. He married and had two children. His marriage failed, and after practising hypnotherapy for a while he began training miniature dogs to perform tricks, appearing in Ashton's Circus and on television.
As someone who has struggled and overcome many of his own physical difficulties, Len Somerville has done much to promote the abilities rather than the disabilities of handicapped people. In his own life he places great value on his sense of humour, without which, he says, he 'would have been dead long ago'.
A number of Len Somerville's poems have been read on Radio 5AA and 5DN. Somerville, whose speech is slurred due to his cerebral palsy, believes that his voice is too difficult for the radio public to understand, but radio comperes Bob Francis and Jeremy Cordeaux have read them on his behalf. His book Through the Eyes of Radio is a selection of these.
