Dice Men by Ian Livingstone with Steve Jackson - Book Review

Let\s clear this up straight away. This is not about Games Workshop. Well, it is, but not that Games Workshop. If you want a corporate history of the modern day vertically integrated (and occasionally litigious) sales machine, this is not the book for you - and I question how thrilling that would be... Nope, Dice Men is the story of the creation of Games Workshop by Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and John Peake up until the point where the company went public and the remaining two founders (Peake left in '76) sold their remaining stake in the company in 1991.

This is quite the autobiography from Livingstone, detailing as it does his childhood and early adult years before starting the business that would eventually evolve into the behemoth that is the current day Games Workshop. There are plenty of contributions from Jackson and others who have been invited to add their memories, creating the patchwork of stories that make up the company's early years. 

Amongst the anecdotes of board games being played, Dungeons and Dragons being discovered and a rather eventful US road trip, you will find out how these guys set up their board game retailer and snagged the UK and European distribution rights to D&D. There's the struggles of running a business, creating a newsletter and a magazine (the latter of which still exists to this day), the expansion of the company to cover the loss of D&D in the early 80's, creating their own figures, and both Livingstone's and Jackson's other projects, most notably the Fighting Fantasy book series - of which I have many a fond memory of reading/playing back in the mists of time. 

Along the way, there are personal conflicts, corporate shenanigans and many a funny tale to be told. As you'd expect from Unbound, this is a very well produced hardback and there is full colour throughout. There are numerous photographs, pieces of artwork, covers and illustrations to behold. This, almost as much as the author's recollections themselves, sells the title. If you're of a certain vintage, the sight of some of these will encourage the rose-tinted spectacles to engage for a more simple time. Note to readers - it wasn't simpler, it was just different. 

I can't find much to fault with either the writing or the presentation, but I would point out that, as with all histories, memory can play tricks, and Ian's description of playing several classic Amiga titles ini the late 1980's with just 256kb of RAM is the only one I can fault. Of the titles listed, only one is from the 1980's and the others all needed at least 512kb of RAM. Yeah, nit-picking, but there we are and it in no way spoils the overall book. 

Anyhoo, this is a fascinating tale, filled with detail and a ton of style and panache in the telling. The foundations of the modern day high street monster are revealed in a mostly warts and all manner and, whilst it wasn't all plain sailing, you can't fault the drive and passion demonstrated by those involved in the early days of GW. You can pick up a copy from the usual high street retailers (including Forbidden Planet which is where I got my copy from) or online, whichever is your preference.