George cockcroft biography

posted on 26 Sep 2018

The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart

Luke Rhinehart is the pseudonym of George Cockcroft and his 1971 publication, The Dice Man, is almost the definition of a cult novel.

When I was working in a Birmingham bookshop in the early 70s I remember selling cartloads of the paperback. Along with books like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest  it attracted readers looking for an ‘alternative’ or ‘counter-cultural’ novel that promised a challenge to established social mores.

At the time I never got around to reading it.

Actually, that’s not really accurate – that suggests it somehow slipped past me but actually I very deliberately avoided it. I’ve always had that contrarian streak in me that that tends to make me think that anything which attracts lavish, modish praise is probably unlikely to be as good as its acolytes would have us believe.

However, Rhinehart’s book has undeniably attracted flor