Randalph Bland

NINE LIVES & COUNTING is the true story of Scottish-born author Randalph Bland’s younger years, growing up in a harsh, bigoted environment and an angry home in the post-war depression and resentment of industrial Scotland in the 1960s and 70s. To escape the omnipresent fear of violence, bullying, and oppression, in Part 1 (Anything for a laugh), young Randalph discovers a way out through raucous borderline humour, often at the expense of others, which helps him to forget the stark realities of his daily life.Randalph’s existential need to escape the straitjacket of home persists into his late teens and early twenties in Part 2 (Out of the nest), when he struggles to survive as a...