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The Scarfolk Annual
The Scarfolk Annual is the facsimile of a book discovered in a charity shop in the north west of England in August 2018. The shop, and indeed town, do not wish to be identified as they are keen to “discourage the ‘occult-totalitarian tourism’ that as afflicted other areas of Britain "as people hunt for further socio-archaeological traces of the mysterious, missing town of Scarfolk"—Britain’s own Brutalist Atlantis.
Apart from the archive of Scarfolk materials which was sent anonymously to the late Dr Ben Motte and formed the basis of the book Discovering Scarfolk, this children’s annual is, to date, the only complete artefact from Scarfolk ever to be unearthed ‘in the wild’.
It’s clear The Scarfolk Annual was not written to entertain children at Christmastime; its purpose was to indoctrinate young minds; in fact, one might go as far as to say destroy young minds, to an end that has been lost to us.
Apart from the archive of Scarfolk materials which was sent anonymously to the late Dr Ben Motte and formed the basis of the book Discovering Scarfolk, this children’s annual is, to date, the only complete artefact from Scarfolk ever to be unearthed ‘in the wild’.
It’s clear The Scarfolk Annual was not written to entertain children at Christmastime; its purpose was to indoctrinate young minds; in fact, one might go as far as to say destroy young minds, to an end that has been lost to us.
136 pages, Hardcover
First published October 17, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
December 26, 2019
Mandatory positive review following discharge from the Insurgent Reprogramming Centre that does not exist. Side effects may include nightmares, paranoiac dread and brood parasites. For more information please reread.
November 3, 2019
Reading this immediately after an occult manual might have been the best decision I've ever made.
The Scarfolk Annual is pitch-black surreal totalitarian satire as only the British can do it. This is Welcome to Night Vale but with none of the nice. Unflinching, unwavering, terrifying and excellent.
The Scarfolk Annual is pitch-black surreal totalitarian satire as only the British can do it. This is Welcome to Night Vale but with none of the nice. Unflinching, unwavering, terrifying and excellent.
August 7, 2019
I found this book difficult to review because it has not been published. Yet, once I had followed 30 to 50 feral hogs at the point of an assault rifle into the totalitarian suburbia of Richard Littler's imagination, I found vast booming illustrations covering every square inch of potentially subversive concrete. This will be a total, like, masterpiece.
November 7, 2019
I have no idea how to explain this. If you've not read Discovering Scarfolk I'm not sure this will make any sense. Of course if you have read Discovering Scarfolk I'm not sure this will make any sense.
This is an annual from sometime in the 70's in the style of the annuals of the period. however this being Scarfolk, it's full of things like how to tell if you're a witch, Foreigner Identification Badges and How to Survive a Nuclear Thing. It has to be said, the councils description of 1984 for use in officially sanctioned book clubs strikes possibly a little close to home.
The entire package isn't just a wonderful satire, or a horrific piece of nostalgia, it's also really very clever. Having grown up with these annuals this not only looks like one, it feels like one, the paper and binding feel like the ones used during the 70's.
This is an amazing book, I look forward to seeing what the council decides we should know next
This is an annual from sometime in the 70's in the style of the annuals of the period. however this being Scarfolk, it's full of things like how to tell if you're a witch, Foreigner Identification Badges and How to Survive a Nuclear Thing. It has to be said, the councils description of 1984 for use in officially sanctioned book clubs strikes possibly a little close to home.
The entire package isn't just a wonderful satire, or a horrific piece of nostalgia, it's also really very clever. Having grown up with these annuals this not only looks like one, it feels like one, the paper and binding feel like the ones used during the 70's.
This is an amazing book, I look forward to seeing what the council decides we should know next
December 28, 2019
Artefakt fra en britisk by fanget i 70erne. Det er grumme sjovt.
November 18, 2024
Content warning for self-harm, cannibalism, and more. The humor here is pretty dark.
Scarfolk, a fictional English town, is trapped in the 1970s, a bleak and totalitarian place. Scarfolk Annual is presented as a facsimile copy of a children's publication with various games, activities, stories, and diagrams. There are board games such as "Race to Say Your Last Goodbye," in which players must try to get to their father before he is executed by the state (there is no way to win), stories like "The Visit from the Christmas Council Boy" (a boy who determines whether your family is demonstrating the Minimum Happiness Level), instructions for making your own branding iron out of a coat hanger so that you can "Find out what it's like to be a cow, sheep, or slave," and more. The former owner of this issue of Scarfolk Annual has written occasional comment in the margins.
This made it onto my radar after I read an article about Scarfolk and Richard Littler's 1970s public information poster parodies. Reading it, I was reminded a bit of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, although I think this might have been a bit darker. I could be wrong, but I don't recall Welcome Night Vale including self-harm as part of its satire, while this work has direct references in both its text and illustrations.
This was nicely put together, with a very unsettling tone. One of these days, I may try Discovering Scarfolk: For Tourists and Other Trespassers.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
Scarfolk, a fictional English town, is trapped in the 1970s, a bleak and totalitarian place. Scarfolk Annual is presented as a facsimile copy of a children's publication with various games, activities, stories, and diagrams. There are board games such as "Race to Say Your Last Goodbye," in which players must try to get to their father before he is executed by the state (there is no way to win), stories like "The Visit from the Christmas Council Boy" (a boy who determines whether your family is demonstrating the Minimum Happiness Level), instructions for making your own branding iron out of a coat hanger so that you can "Find out what it's like to be a cow, sheep, or slave," and more. The former owner of this issue of Scarfolk Annual has written occasional comment in the margins.
This made it onto my radar after I read an article about Scarfolk and Richard Littler's 1970s public information poster parodies. Reading it, I was reminded a bit of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, although I think this might have been a bit darker. I could be wrong, but I don't recall Welcome Night Vale including self-harm as part of its satire, while this work has direct references in both its text and illustrations.
This was nicely put together, with a very unsettling tone. One of these days, I may try Discovering Scarfolk: For Tourists and Other Trespassers.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
September 18, 2023
As entertaining as this remains, I wish the versions with hallucinogenic/toxic inks were still in circulation for newer die-hard fans to experience.
March 2, 2020
A bit of a disappointment for anyone like me already familiar with other Scarfolk material. Feels like Littler is running out of ideas, and notably lacks the wit and satirical bite of earlier publications. This is often just nasty and more interested in horror than humour.
Read Discovering Scarfolk instead, which is great.
Read Discovering Scarfolk instead, which is great.
December 6, 2019
Black totalitarian satire, set in a town that eternally repeats the 1970s. I’m an old fan of the Scarfolk blog, which one should probably be familiar with before reading this, but it can be read independently of the blog too.
January 5, 2023
Bought this for Bill for Christmas and he found it so funny he said I should read it too. The most comforting thing about this was it still somehow ends up being worst than Tory Britian in 2023. But only just.
December 15, 2021
Some light reading fun that is filled with darkness, twisted tales and other fables from some sick f#@k's!!
July 25, 2024
Richard Littler is a graphic designer and writer who has put together a cool art project that plays with the ideas of design and nostalgia, government, conspiracy, and paranoia and brings them into an imaginary town in England entirely stuck in the early 1970s: Scarfolk. Similar to the execution and storylines we see in Welcome to Nightvale, the books of Mark Z Danielewski, Look Around You, They Might Be Giants and other cultural phenomena, we are treated to an upside-down version of Lake Wobegone that has little horrors around every corner packaged in a creepy trip back to our childhoods. These books are the result of the viral phenomenon that began with a blog and transformed into the physical world in the form of maps, books, and other strange paraphernalia emanating from the Big Brother of this intricate, dimensional fever-dream fantasy town of the alternate-past.
DISCOVERING SCARFOLK FOR TOURISTS & OTHER TRESPASSERS is pretty cool. It is a collection of new and unique Scarfolk signage and lore, but in this case, there is a storyline that ties it all together in the vein of Mark Z Danielewski’s House Of Leaves. In this story, Daniel Bush is searching for his two boys Joseph and Oliver Bush who have disappeared. We are brought along the meandering mysterious streets, government interventions, and ultimately an underground labyrinth where our protagonist is forced to rewatch rites in the third person that he unwittingly participated in like a bewildering tesseract. The Danielewski connection is alive in the Theseus and the Minotaur ending, never mind the third-person investigation using a variety of artifacts that come together to tell the story in a fun, strange, disorienting manner.
THE SCARFOLK ANNUAL is a much shorter, but much larger format book that contains much of the same material but lacks the same level of narrative. It is more like an Almanac geared toward children but contains many great gags and a gorgeous, funny, terrifying presentation of a discarded library book.
In all, the experience of reading both of these art books was a great deal of fun. I wish there were more of them and the blog was still being updated. There is a reason this went viral; it is hilarious, scary, and fun, and it has just the right level of non-sequitur on which the internet thrives. I could keep going with this, man.
For more information, please reread.
DISCOVERING SCARFOLK FOR TOURISTS & OTHER TRESPASSERS is pretty cool. It is a collection of new and unique Scarfolk signage and lore, but in this case, there is a storyline that ties it all together in the vein of Mark Z Danielewski’s House Of Leaves. In this story, Daniel Bush is searching for his two boys Joseph and Oliver Bush who have disappeared. We are brought along the meandering mysterious streets, government interventions, and ultimately an underground labyrinth where our protagonist is forced to rewatch rites in the third person that he unwittingly participated in like a bewildering tesseract. The Danielewski connection is alive in the Theseus and the Minotaur ending, never mind the third-person investigation using a variety of artifacts that come together to tell the story in a fun, strange, disorienting manner.
THE SCARFOLK ANNUAL is a much shorter, but much larger format book that contains much of the same material but lacks the same level of narrative. It is more like an Almanac geared toward children but contains many great gags and a gorgeous, funny, terrifying presentation of a discarded library book.
In all, the experience of reading both of these art books was a great deal of fun. I wish there were more of them and the blog was still being updated. There is a reason this went viral; it is hilarious, scary, and fun, and it has just the right level of non-sequitur on which the internet thrives. I could keep going with this, man.
For more information, please reread.
September 2, 2023
A follow up to Discovering Scarfolk and an altogether more accessible product (if the madness within the pages can constitute accessible in any meaningful way). Picking up on the themes of the book, Twitter account https://twitter.com/Scarfolk and blog https://scarfolk.blogspot.com/ this is a 'found' children's annual from the lost northern 1970's town of Scarfolk. Aimed at children, unlike the last book which attracted way to much occult-totalitarian tourism this book is perfect for brainwashing kinds in a heady mix of public information film, child death, xenophobia and surveillance.
It's satire of course, but I am sure Littler has one very close eye on the state of the united kingdom today when producing this!
From a design point of view it's perfect and takes a different approach from the book with it's poster imagery. Here Scarfolk is presented through the lens of comic strips, fun facts, games and crafts and stories. It's mental because it mirrors the 70's annual wonderfully but this is some dark stuff too (I mean how much animal torture, child murder and cannibalism can one cope with for laughs). And in terms of the humour, I've read some reviews saying this isn't as good as 'Discovering Scarfolk'. I found myself laughing more with this one. It's definitely adult and 'close to the bone' at times so would recommend people check out the blog first.
Wasn't so sure of this following being underwhelmed by the first book, but this one is much better. Now what time is my council/coven/cult meeting, and what shall I do about the neighbours/children/pets thought crimes?
It's satire of course, but I am sure Littler has one very close eye on the state of the united kingdom today when producing this!
From a design point of view it's perfect and takes a different approach from the book with it's poster imagery. Here Scarfolk is presented through the lens of comic strips, fun facts, games and crafts and stories. It's mental because it mirrors the 70's annual wonderfully but this is some dark stuff too (I mean how much animal torture, child murder and cannibalism can one cope with for laughs). And in terms of the humour, I've read some reviews saying this isn't as good as 'Discovering Scarfolk'. I found myself laughing more with this one. It's definitely adult and 'close to the bone' at times so would recommend people check out the blog first.
Wasn't so sure of this following being underwhelmed by the first book, but this one is much better. Now what time is my council/coven/cult meeting, and what shall I do about the neighbours/children/pets thought crimes?
March 15, 2022
Technically this is probably a 3 1/2, but it’s an undeniably brilliant bit of graphic art so the design nudges it upwards. The problem is that what works as one off images begins to become, well (and there’s no easy way to put this), evidence of something approximating a serious depressive episode hiding as a blackly comic book. The relentlessness of the misery becomes tough going after a while and has none of, say, the League of Gentlemen’s ability to vary the grotesque with something just wholly daft. There’s something that’s not so much misanthropic as bleakly defeated about reading this in one go that it feels a bit like the equivalent of David Cronenberg’s The Brood - which features as a joke here - where the director’s trauma at his divorce kind of leaves a weird aftertaste to the horrors on screen. It’s the sort of book that leaves you not unsatisfied but hoping the writer seeks some sort of help and relief very soon
December 31, 2019
“The Scarfolk Annual is the facsimile of a book discovered in a charity shop in the north west of England in August 2018. The shop, and indeed town, do not wish to be identified as they are keen to “discourage the ‘occult-totalitarian tourism’ that as afflicted other areas of Britain” as people hunt for further socio-archaeological traces of the mysterious, missing town of Scarfolk – Britain’s own Brutalist Atlantis.”
This brilliant work of satire offers a horrific and hilarious dystopic vision of an England that would have given Orwell the heebie-jeebies. Like the children’s annuals that it parodies, The Scarfolk Annual is a Christmas necessity, something you can read as you stand around your burning oil can at Yuletide, roasting some rats over the constant wail of sirens in the distance.
This brilliant work of satire offers a horrific and hilarious dystopic vision of an England that would have given Orwell the heebie-jeebies. Like the children’s annuals that it parodies, The Scarfolk Annual is a Christmas necessity, something you can read as you stand around your burning oil can at Yuletide, roasting some rats over the constant wail of sirens in the distance.
April 6, 2022
More scattershot than previous affair Discovering Scarfolk, this relies on the hazy comfort of nostalgia to disconcert audiences with a sense of unease and horror.
Less of a coherent narrative than Discovering Scarfolk (though you will find some specific connections), the annual is a ragbag of parodies and visual puns all bound through hauntology
Again, there's a balance between and horror though - by dint of the very format it's parodying - much of the book dwells upon psychological torture and the death of children. While it's all obviously a spoof, it perhaps puts the balance a bit off-kilter even when you admire the sheer effort put into it all.
Less of a coherent narrative than Discovering Scarfolk (though you will find some specific connections), the annual is a ragbag of parodies and visual puns all bound through hauntology
Again, there's a balance between and horror though - by dint of the very format it's parodying - much of the book dwells upon psychological torture and the death of children. While it's all obviously a spoof, it perhaps puts the balance a bit off-kilter even when you admire the sheer effort put into it all.
September 22, 2020
Richard Littler is a very good writer, sadly his latest book, The Scarfolk Annual, just doesn't quite measure up to his earlier work; Discovering Scarfolk. This might be because the writing isn't as funny, or because the idea of Scarfolk lacks the element of surprise the second time around. Most likely some combination of both. if you haven't read Discovering Scarfolk, I would advice you to start with that, If you have read Discovering Scarfolk and just want more Scarfolk, I don't think this book is a waste of time.
September 28, 2023
If you like your humour dark as the longest night this one’s for you… taking Orwellian ideas and twisting them in at once hilarious and terrifying ways the Scarfolk Annual 197* is glorious.
With propaganda posters, ‘children’s games’, short stories and more it’s packed with dark surrealism and horror highlighted by a warning about snacks and a visit by the Council Christmas Boy.
For more information please re-read, and remember, whatever you do, DON’T!
With propaganda posters, ‘children’s games’, short stories and more it’s packed with dark surrealism and horror highlighted by a warning about snacks and a visit by the Council Christmas Boy.
For more information please re-read, and remember, whatever you do, DON’T!
November 17, 2019
Entertainingly disturbing. Or, disturbingly entertaining. Would have garnered 5 stars were it not for a few minor typos and the author/designer’s insistence on un-hyphenated fully-justified paragraphs, which lead to some ridiculously wide word spaces.
Still, the ‘Seance Poodle’ story was an absolute hoot, and the ‘Politics of the Future’ the literary satire equivalent of a well-placed Banksy.
Still, the ‘Seance Poodle’ story was an absolute hoot, and the ‘Politics of the Future’ the literary satire equivalent of a well-placed Banksy.
February 28, 2020
Not quite as good as Discovering Scarfolk but still dark and disturbing in a surreal sort of way. A wonderful black parody of BBC annuals from the 70s. Thought I was going to be disappointed re limb removal however it all came good (or is it bad?) in the end. On a final note should I return this to the Scarfolk school library?
Ray Smillie
Ray Smillie
April 22, 2021
A well observed 1970s annual, providing vital information on what you should do if the flute playing boy from The Council should ever pay a visit, and how to look after a wall pet.
Fans of subversive dark humour only. I am sure the author would not want to be held responsible for any injury or loss of memory caused from following the instructions contained therein.
Fans of subversive dark humour only. I am sure the author would not want to be held responsible for any injury or loss of memory caused from following the instructions contained therein.
December 9, 2023
One of the most intriguing, weird, sad and comically satirical books I have encountered in a long time, turning more horrifiying page by page. Littler did such an amazing job in creating this fictional world, being also a very well crafted political satire on its own.
I want to visit Scarfolk, get my limbs sewn off and get some neigbours killed and never return again.
I want to visit Scarfolk, get my limbs sewn off and get some neigbours killed and never return again.
October 16, 2024
Bizarre, disturbing, hilarious, with a side of social commentary. An off-putting mystery town stuck in the 1970s where strange rituals and severe human rights violations are documented in comedic posters and bizarre notes, compiled as if it all really happened. Maybe it did? The scarfolk books are books for cool people. Mmmm, staples.
March 30, 2025
next vacay spot 😍
no but fr this book was so disturbing but also so hilarious. the way everything was written made it feel like reading a nonfiction book. no matter how ridiculous something sounded or looked, it still made my stomach queasy because it felt so real. i would LOOOVE a book with a plot about scarfolk, because i would be absolutely obsessed.
no but fr this book was so disturbing but also so hilarious. the way everything was written made it feel like reading a nonfiction book. no matter how ridiculous something sounded or looked, it still made my stomach queasy because it felt so real. i would LOOOVE a book with a plot about scarfolk, because i would be absolutely obsessed.
November 17, 2019
I've eaten my share of staples of the years....
December 28, 2019
For more information please reread
December 28, 2019
For more information please re-read.
December 29, 2019
Great book to dip in an out of. Hilarious!!! Nothing quite like this - I want more!
January 12, 2020
For more information please reread.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews