Allan Scarfe has lived in Warrnambool, Victoria, and attended Bendigo Teachers' College (1949) and the University of Melbourne (where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1952 and a Diploma of Education in 1966). He has written a number of short stories and also published (with Wendy Scarfe), several non-fiction books. These include A Mouthful of Petals (1967), being case studies of Indian welfare recipients, Tiger on a Rein : Report on the Bihar Famine (1969), People of India (1972), The Black Australians : Aboriginals, the Past and the Future (1974), J.P., His Biography (1975), about Indian statesman Jai Prakash Narian, Victims or Bludgers? : A Poverty Inquiry for Schools (1981), Labor's Titan : The Story of Percy Brookfield (1983) and No Taste for Carnage : Alex Sheppard, a Portrait (1998). Scarfe has worked as a teacher in England, India, and Australia.