Rory Kelly on signing Fighting Fantasy for Peasoup’s Smart Books – and launching at Waterstone’s

Great to see you, Rory. As part of the team working on Peasoup’s Smart Books, you just announced the news… You’ve got a licensing deal with Sir Ian Livingstone. For the uninitiated, who is he?
Sir Ian Livingstone is the co-creator of Fighting Fantasy books, and the co-founder of Game Workshop. He was also an instrumental figure behind Lara Croft. Beyond that, he’s a very modest, down-to-earth man; really lovely… And yes, we’re delighted that he’s trusting us with a license to use Fighting Fantasy in the Peasoup Smart Books.

And how would you describe Smart Books?
Smart Books are Augmented Reality adventure books. They let readers discover a world where stories come alive through interactivity. They really transform the reading experience for children. Søren Jønsson created the idea and Kristian Dreinø is the wonderful sales manager. When Søren and Kristian showed Sir Ian the AR-book concept, he loved them. So it felt like a meeting of minds for the teams involved because when Søren first got into designing the books, it all came from a love of adventure inspired by the original Fighting Fantasy books.

What are Fighting Fantasy books?
They’re a series of solo-player roleplay books that’s Sir Ian created with Steve Jackson. The first book came out back in 1982; a mix of a roleplaying dice game and pick your own adventure… Each book’s premise is that you go on a standalone adventure in which you’re the hero. And with Smart Books, Søren has very much bought that same premise up to date with Augmented Reality and elements of coding combined with cracking stories.

Perfect. How did you meet Søren and Kristian?
I already knew and had worked with Kristian by the time he invited me to their stand in Nuremberg in 2023. At that time, I could’ve made a decent list of products that I’ve seen over the years and said would be a hit but didn’t get involved in… So I was kind of primed to get involved when I first saw one of these books! I loved it. I saw how it encapsulated my whole career… From my years in the book industry at Waterstone’s, my years in tech at Apple and then my years in the game space – from Rory’s Story Cubes and Wrebbit to Coiledspring Games and beyond.

And I’ll put a link in here to an older interview on our sister site so people can learn a bit more about your career. But you felt that Smart Books were irresistible?
Yes, I thought this one product really pulled it all together and – even though I didn’t know exactly what it was going to look like – I knew I’d be able to do something with it. And I wanted to and I found a way to bring the first edition paperbacks to the UK market. Later, Peter Allinson from Whirligig Toys saw the concept. He loved it, and gave some really useful feedback… And we’ve now brought them to the market in a fully updated format and changed the distribution partner to help bring them to a wider market.

Fascinating. What was the feedback that Peter gave you?
He suggested making the books hardback and colour. And that was consistent with my vision because it makes sense to have colour and other elements to make it look more like a more epic adventure. I wanted it to be something that really draws the reader in… Because, to me, if adventure books have ever done their job, they’ve done it by letting a young person – maybe 14 plus – take themselves on an adventure. They may not be a huge reader; they may not have picked up a book for enjoyment in years – or even in their lives in some instances…

So our thinking is that if this can help people utilise a smartphone or a tablet in the right way, and just take them away from that negative creep of technology for a little point of time, and help them go on an imaginative journey of exploration, who knows where it leads? A book, an adventure, a good board game, a good movie can achieve those things.

And what’s your involvement then, Rory?
I’m the silent partner in the UK imprint part of that business. So Mark McGrath is very much leading things from a point of view of getting the actual product ready through his imprint company, GC Publishing. Mark has worked with UK teachers to fully translate the books for the UK market. I help him by looking at it from the distribution point of view. And I’m delighted to say the books will now have a full launch during this week’s UK Games Expo; they’ll launch at Waterstone’s – so it feels like a lovely full-circle career moment.

Oh, that’s wonderful! It seems to me that the product has come a long way since I first saw it at London Book Fair in 2025. Does that mean you’ve been at Zatu for a year, then?!
Yes, I officially started at Zatu on February 1st 2026. I’d been crossing over most of January, but at that point I knew I wanted Rob Trounce to come across too as I value the collaborative working partnership we have, he has been instrumental in promoting the book series for Peasoup as well. It’s great to look back at what we’ve achieved in the space of one year of distribution with Zatu games… I’m incredibly proud of the team and what they’ve helped bring to the space. Of course, I still feel like we’re only just getting started!

Well, let’s carry on talking about that, Rory! We’ll switch over to a Mojo Nation interview to discuss your ten years in toys and games, your role at Zatu Distribution… And how you demo games! People can read that here.