The Town of Scarfolk

Each flyer from Scarfolk Council to the town reads at the top before each announcement:

'Scarfolk is a town in North West England that did not progress bey ond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. Here in Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever. "Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay." For more information please reread.'

- Dr. R. Littler

But...where is this Scarfolk and what exactly is Scarfolk Council? And who, you wonder to yourself, is this Dr. R. Littler?

The beginning of Scarfolk began with writer, Richard Littler, of Manchester, England. He started with a blog and included fake historical documents made to resemble public information posters from 1970's Britain. He definitely took creative license to levels not read about since George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm. Scarfolk is naively dystopian and satirical, and any sane person will cringe at the thought of becoming a resident. There's no telling what may happen! You could become a victim of your own child's need for the Breath Mirror Set star-points, or your 'Kids in Blankets' for the traditional Scarfolk Christmas lunch could contain the kids next door. Richard Littler wrote himself as the Mayor of this bizarre little town that's stuck in a perpetual loop of time, spanning the decade between 1970-1979.

Life and Death in Scarfolk

Every citizen gets an Expiration Card with their date of death. Upon the date of death, all citizens to expire must plan and pay for the expenses. If the cardholder dies before the card date, it is then passed to the next of kin who has the option to swap it with their own, or donate it. The Scarfolk Expiration Charity brings together poverty-stricken citizens to perish in the same event, so they can share the expense.

Fun for the kids

Before censorship of so many shows and movies in the United States, there was a similar kind of twisted entertainment to watch on late night television. Littler definitely takes his idea to the top and pushes it over for us. There was one show way before my time that ran from 1962-1963 called 'TW3' which poked fun at 'the establishment' and had writers like Roald Dahl, Peter Cook, and the infamous Gerald Kaufman (in 1970 he was named Father of the House of Commons and was the longest serving British Member of Parliament).

Let me ask, who born before 1990 doesn't remember 'The Benny Hill Show' or 'The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'? Both had an extensive run in the United States and Canada, with years of enjoyable reruns. During the 1980's MTV-era, there was 'The Young Ones', a British comedy show of a bunch of men co-habiting together. I have fond memories of staying up late to watch that, as well as black and white episodes of 'The Twilight Zone'. Some of the best dark comedy was done way before the 1970's.

Scarfolk Council

The book 'Discovering Scarfolk' was published in 2014 and is available by clicking the link below, on goodreads.com. There is a television series being developed and Richard Littler is of course, co-writing. I absolutely can't wait to watch it and really hope he gives us all a taste of some-old-yet-new 'Twilight Zone' mixed with Stephen King, meets 'Swan Song' (Robert McCammon), with a side of Monty Python thrown in to indulge my disturbed sense of reality! Especially after how 2020 has been. Anyone agree? Disagree? Doesn't matter either way. Scarfolk and Mayor Dr. R. Littler went viral on the internet years ago and there really is no stopping him. Just read and enjoy the ride!

Richard Littler has lived in America, Ireland, Russia, and from trying to read just about everything I could on this awesome author, I'm pretty sure he now lives in Heidelberg, Germany with his wife. He has a current blogspot, however it is pretty private (which means HEY! PERSONAL!) and you'll get a 'by invite only' type of page. Don't be surprised. He's making it as a writer and definitely deserves his online privacy. But, if you tweet (which I don't) you can find Richard on twitter by clicking this link.

Some more info on his Scarfolk blog: It received international praise, was featured by articles in several magazines, such as The Independent 'How to wash a childs brain', Creative Review 'Have you been to Scarfolk', and The Telegraph 'Why the 1970s was the most terrifying decade', had over 400,000 hits within the first four months and was described by GQ magazine as 'The 100 Funniest Things in the History of the Internet'. His writing experience also includes acting as script and story consultant and he has published poetry in Gargoyle magazine.

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