SCARRED FOR LIFE

Volume One

released OUT NOW! 740 pages | Paperback

Authors stephen Brotherstone, dave lawrence

Publisher lonely Water

Followers of Twitter account @ScarredForLife2 will require no explanation of this smartly named brand’s remit: the child-traumatising dark side of ’70s and ’80s pop culture.

This first of two planned volumes focuses on the ’70s, looking at not only spooky TV shows such as Children Of The Stones, but pants-browning movies (The Medusa Touch), public information films (Lonely Water), books (Attack Of The Crabs) and comics (Action), as well as horror-themed boardgames (Ghost Castle) and foods (Dracula lollies), plus the paranormal (Bigfoot!).

The style is informal – expect phrases like “all goes tits up” and “put the shits up me” – and there’s a liberal sprinkling of personal reminiscence: running home from school to catch a TV show; playing Top Trumps in the playground. It’s all rather charming – and a little like our back page feature Total Recall.

Very much a labour of love, it’s a little undisciplined; a ruthless editor would have narrowed the focus – do we really need another critique of the dated attitudes of ’70s sitcoms? But unlike moronic clipshows such as Channel 5’s The Best Of Bad TV, Scarred For Life approaches everything with enthusiasm and affection rather than sneering irony. That makes this mammoth volume (700+ pages!) a pleasure to dip in and out of. Ian Berriman