That isn’t to say they were wrong about it; they clearly have enjoyed enormous success from Fighting Fantasy, and it’s hard to argue with 50+ titles still in publication and a legacy that persists even today. I thought it was incredibly well written, to the point that I kept telling myself "just one more chapter, then I'll sleep.

That first iteration of GW is very different to the company it would later become, but the seeds of it all are sown during a whirlwind decade that established Livingstone and Jackson as the foremost names in British tabletop fantasy thanks to their canny decision making, incredible work ethic, and commitment to pursuing opportunities wherever they might lead. For those with either a nostalgic memory of, or an interest in the seminal era of the 70s and early 80s for role-playing games (TTRPG under current nomenclature) this is a great read. More likely it speaks to a culture for which the Nottingham operations were always slightly out of view; what was happening in London was the focus, because that’s where Livingstone and Jackson were. I mentioned the page count earlier, but the meat of the thing is in the section from pages 15 to 268, roughly 253 pages (not accounting for chapter breaks – which are fairly frequent at approximately 14 pages per chapter). It’s an annoyance more than a major issue, and as already stated it’s probably the best choice for trying to make sense of what the company was doing in those early days, but it can make for a slightly surreal reading experience and I suspect a more tightly-edited book might have moved some of these sections around or more explicitly linked them.

To an extent it’s understandable that this period of control slowly unraveling isn’t the key focus, but you do wish there was a bit more here; 1987 is the last year for which there’s any real detail given, but it would be nice to have a bit more on these latter stages, and especially the release of Rogue Trader which gets the most passing of mentions. It’s all interesting stuff in its own way, and adds richness to the tale being told, but in the interests of both brevity and preserving the book’s contents to be read in their own right I am largely skipping over it. If you've come here for dirty laundry, insight into the conflicts between the artistic and commercial, or ruminations on the greater cultural significance of gaming, you're going to be disappointed. Excellent book on GWs early past, and a must have for fans of old miniatures ("Oldhammer"), classic RPGs, Boardgames or Fightng Fantasy gamebooks. The idea to start our own company first cropped up during one of our many ‘beer and a board game’ sessions after work at our flat.

There are lots of pictures and topics covered such as Citadel Miniatures and the start of Warhammer which I’ve never read before. Se echa de menos que no se detallen más los orígenes y la historia de algunos de los títulos esenciales de la compañía. Then, they started publishing their own games magazine, White Dwarf, that was similar to Dragon magazine at the time in that it was full of role-playing articles and scenarios.

First, the fact that such an amateurish, if enthusiastic, operation would never be able to find its feet nowadays. It's a wonderfully nostalgic piece of work, part memoir, part full-colour scrapbook, told with infectious enthusiasm and delivered with the pacing you would expect from an international best-selling author.

It wasn’t too hard to convince him to stay on by promising him we would back him when the time came for us to step down on condition that he was willing to be part of an enlarged operating board in the short term. What amazes me is how many of the personalities involved in GW’ sphere of influence either came from, or moved onto, other projects and companies which I also love. The format lends itself to this kind of picture-gallery stuff, though it isn’t necessarily the style you’d want for reading an in-depth history.The book has many pictures and artworks, but I was really hoping to know more about Warhammer 40k, how they came up with this universe, etc.

There’s a whole chapter about a road trip that Livingstone and Jackson take across America, only barely relevant to the whole thing because it has the questionable business rationale that they go to Gen Con at the end of it. He is the former Executive Chairman of video games publisher Eidos where he launched blockbuster titles Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Hitman. Despite being one of the minds behind Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Bryan Ansell comes out of this history looking pretty mercenary. The idea to start our own company first cropped up during one of our many 'beer and a board game' sessions after work at our flat. Ian was executive chairman of Eidos until 2002, where he launched global games franchises such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.The first is to discuss what is in this book, what’s said and what story it’s telling, and the second is to discuss what isn’t said and what story it doesn’t tell.