with communication problems due to being a stutterer, he is a compulsive reader. at the age of eight he had a serious accident, and from the age of ten to twelve he wrote several hundred-page novels; at 15 he already had one of five hundred written. he finished school at sixteen and passed the high school bar in the summer of 1964. he suffered violent bullying from schoolyard bullies. he commented on his childhood and youth that "i was repressed three times: by my father, by the regime and by the francoist school." 1 the public order court booked him at age 21 for writing in a clandestine magazine and they took away his passport. he bribed a military man not to do military service. in october 1964 he went to work in construction by day and to study to be a rigger by night, in a night school, forced by his father. in the next six years he began to listen to the radio and save to buy rock records and learned english by ear.