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General Chat => Books & Comics => Topic started by: Stegron on 29 March, 2017, 04:31:01 AM

Title: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Stegron on 29 March, 2017, 04:31:01 AM
Hello all,

I just wanted to let everyone know about a new book by myself and co-author Dave Lawrence, Scarred For Life Volume One.

It's a 740 page tome about growing up with all of the wonderfully dark pop culture of the 1970s: scary kids' shows (The Owl Service, Sky, Children of the Stones etc)  to, bleak adult dramas (Callan, Doomwatch, 1990, Survivors etc), sci-fi & horror (from Blakes 7 to Sapphire and Steel, A Ghost Story for Xmas to The Omega Factor), shocking public information films, violent kids' comics, horror-themed toys, games, sweets and crisps, pulp horror novels, savage horror films and the paranormal boom of the decade!

2000 AD, Action, Misty, brutal girls' comics... They're all in there, and many more besides.

It's huge: 740 black and white pages for £16.99, or a full colour eBook for £5.99. Every physical copy comes with a free eBook (the instructions for downloading it are on page 2 of the hard copy).

Here's the direct link to the hard copy, if anyone's interested:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brotherstone-dave-lawrence/scarred-for-life-volume-one/paperback/product-23116461.html

And for the PDF:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brotherstone-dave-lawrence/scarred-for-life-volume-one/ebook/product-23116544.html

I think it'll be right up a lot of forum members' streets. Hope you enjoy it!
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: NapalmKev on 29 March, 2017, 10:55:12 AM
Quote from: Stegron on 29 March, 2017, 04:31:01 AM

...shocking public information films...

I remember a particularly bad one where a young lad gets his feet cut off by a train. The policeman knocked on the door and, holding up the lads football boots, says to the mother "He won't be needing these any more!". Dark stuff!

Cheers
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Stegron on 29 March, 2017, 11:10:23 AM
Quote from: NapalmKev on 29 March, 2017, 10:55:12 AM
Quote from: Stegron on 29 March, 2017, 04:31:01 AM

...shocking public information films...

I remember a particularly bad one where a young lad gets his feet cut off by a train. The policeman knocked on the door and, holding up the lads football boots, says to the mother "He won't be needing these any more!". Dark stuff!

Cheer

That was a lovely little public information film called 'Robbie', presented by Peter Purves in full-on Alan Partridge mode!
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: walrus on 29 March, 2017, 05:40:25 PM
I ordered this early on Friday and cannot wait to get my hands on it. I am really looking forward to reading this.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Spikes on 29 March, 2017, 06:09:26 PM
Came across the build up for this by chance on FB a month or so ago, and mightily looking forward to grabbing a copy.

Payday on Friday it is!

Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Lobo Baggins on 29 March, 2017, 06:44:26 PM
I've actually been waiting for this to come out for years!

Ordered it on release day, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it!
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Eamonn Clarke on 30 March, 2017, 07:56:36 AM
Reading it now. Delighted to find that it starts with some of the same creepy children's TV shows that we have covered on the British Invaders science fiction podcast. Excellent articles so far.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: AlexF on 03 April, 2017, 10:17:27 AM
As someone born in 1978, I'm curious to know if people think I'd enjoy this? It sounds like exactly my sort of thing, only I never got to watch a lot of the shows described above - will the book just leave me sad for a childhood I didn't have, or is there plenty of socio-cultural analysis to keep me entertained?

Perhaps I should wait for the follow-up, which can help me relive nightmares about Knightmare, Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, and Waddington's Horror Top Trumps.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Proudhuff on 03 April, 2017, 12:10:33 PM
Ha! Have Children of the Stones and Singing Ring Tree in my pile of DVDs to watch.

Will ask the Library to get this book.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 03 April, 2017, 01:29:55 PM
Quote from: Proudhuff on 03 April, 2017, 12:10:33 PM
Ha! Have Children of the Stones and Singing Ring Tree in my pile of DVDs to watch.

Will ask the Library to get this book.
Nice coincidence, have Children of the Stone and The Owl Servive lined up.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Bad City Blue on 05 April, 2017, 11:39:31 AM
Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 03 April, 2017, 01:29:55 PM
Quote from: Proudhuff on 03 April, 2017, 12:10:33 PM
Ha! Have Children of the Stones and Singing Ring Tree in my pile of DVDs to watch.

Will ask the Library to get this book.
Nice coincidence, have Children of the Stone and The Owl Servive lined up.

Children of the stones is great. Took me ages to track down as I couldn't remember the title and had patchy recollection of what it was about.

Got a bootleg DVD as it's not been released officially
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Bad City Blue on 05 April, 2017, 11:42:33 AM
Sounds like my kind of thing anyway - ordered
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 05 April, 2017, 01:40:56 PM
Quote from: Bad City Blue on 05 April, 2017, 11:39:31 AM
Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 03 April, 2017, 01:29:55 PM
Quote from: Proudhuff on 03 April, 2017, 12:10:33 PM
Ha! Have Children of the Stones and Singing Ring Tree in my pile of DVDs to watch.

Will ask the Library to get this book.
Nice coincidence, have Children of the Stone and The Owl Servive lined up.

Children of the stones is great. Took me ages to track down as I couldn't remember the title and had patchy recollection of what it was about.

Got a bootleg DVD as it's not been released officially
What side of the pond are yoy, BCB? Children of the Stone got an official DVD from Network a few years ago, still in print.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Bad City Blue on 05 April, 2017, 02:05:15 PM
In the UK, when I got it there was no DVD but it was probably 4/5 years ago.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: walrus on 05 April, 2017, 03:57:19 PM
My copy arrived yesterday. Had a quick flick through it last night and cannot wait to get stuck in.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Steve Green on 06 April, 2017, 02:28:35 PM
Mine turned up - just had a skim and it's very dense at 700-odd pages, I could quite see it filling 2 or 3 larger format books with colour images and a bit more space to breathe.

Apparently there's a colour PDF available with the purchase of the printed version, but haven't hunted down a link yet.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Bad City Blue on 11 April, 2017, 11:38:26 AM
I ordered a book, I got a potential murder weapon!

I can see myself dipping into this for the next year or so
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Lobo Baggins on 23 April, 2017, 10:40:23 AM
Finally finished reading this - can't recommend it highly enough!  Even if those bloody Green Horse Things from Project UFO were staring RIGHT AT ME for TWO WHOLE PAGES!  Eeeek!

It also finally allowed me to identify the last of my half remembered childhood TV memories - 'a man, standing in a park at night, turns into a tree' - to an episode of 'Shadows' called 'The Man Who Hated Children' where George A Cooper from Grange Hill... turns into a tree.  And it takes AGES.  No wonder it stuck in my memory.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 23 April, 2017, 11:01:37 AM
Shadows is something i've been meaning to get around to, like many of the serials in this tome Network put out sets of the entire series.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Bad City Blue on 24 April, 2017, 02:58:47 PM
It's great reading this and then looking for the stuff mentioned on YouTube. I'd never even heard of Romany Jones and now I feel the same mild distaste as everyone else! Not awful, but of it's time.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Bad City Blue on 24 April, 2017, 03:27:49 PM
 

Not sure if it should also have been mentioned that Arthur Mullard was a notorious dealer of domestic abuse.
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Bad City Blue on 24 April, 2017, 11:11:02 PM
And every "the Black Hole" fan knows it's V.I.N CENT (Vital Information Necessary CENTralized) not V.I.N.C.E.N.T - loving the book anyway
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: Krakajac on 18 February, 2018, 11:21:58 AM
Was going to start a new thread for this book - glad I searched for the word 'scarred'. :)

Recently got my copy - simply awesome - and a very reasonable price considering its size/weight.

Looking forward to the second volume - but as I was slightly older in the 80's - I may not be quite as scarred. :)
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: sheridan on 18 February, 2018, 06:42:45 PM
1970s public information films (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0xmSV6aq0g) - the second one is really scary, but for completely different reasons to when it was produced*...

*the clue is 1970s
Title: Re: Scarred For Life Volume One - a book about dark 70s pop culture
Post by: sheridan on 18 February, 2018, 07:15:38 PM
Quote from: NapalmKev on 29 March, 2017, 10:55:12 AM
I remember a particularly bad one where a young lad gets his feet cut off by a train. The policeman knocked on the door and, holding up the lads football boots, says to the mother "He won't be needing these any more!". Dark stuff!

Cheers

I wasn't familiar with that one so just youtubed it - it's the narrator who says that - the copper says "They asked me to bring you these" (not sure who they are, or why they would want him to bring them to the mother before she's even seen her boy lying in hospital...)