Ian Livingstone

Ian Livingstone CBE
Ian Livingstone during the Bafta Awards 2006.
Born	(1949-12-29) 29 December 1949 (age 67) Prestbury, Cheshire, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Fantasy author, entrepreneur
Known for	Co-creator for Fighting Fantasy gamebooks Co-founder for Games Workshop President and CEO for Eidos Interactive Co-author for Next Gen report

Ian Livingstone CBE (born 29 December 1949) is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. Along with Steve Jackson, he is the co-founder of a series of role-playing gamebooks, Fighting Fantasy, and the author of many books within that series. He is also one of the co-founders of prominent games company Games Workshop.

Livingstone attended Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, where, according to him, he only earned one A-level, in Geography. He has kept his close links with the school and has visited it on numerous occasions, including to donate money for a refurbishment of the ICT suite and to present awards to GCSE recipients in 1998.

Livingstone co-founded Games Workshop in early 1975 with flatmates John Peake and Steve Jackson. They started publishing a monthly newsletter, Owl and Weasel, and sent copies of the first issue to subscribers of the recently defunct fanzine Albion; Brian Blume received one of these copies, and sent them a copy of the new game Dungeons & Dragons in return. Livingstone and Jackson felt that this game was more imaginative than anything being produced in the UK at the time, and so worked out an arrangement with Blume for an exclusive deal to sell D&D in Europe. They began distributing Dungeons & Dragons and other TSR products later in 1975. In late 1975, Livingstone and Jackson organised their first convention, the first Games Day. Because they were selling products out of their flat, people would come looking for a store that did not exist; because of this they were evicted in the summer of 1976.