Customer Reviews

Roll the Dice

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although this book is let down by poor editing, the story itself is something of a classic. In many parts hilariously recounted, Roll the Dice tells how a brilliant young man who seemingly had it all staged an armed robbery of precious gems in a New York hotel and manged to convince Lloyds of London to pay out some £2M in insurance moneys. The fact that Lloyds had, in the eyes of the author, been responsible for his father's loss of an equivalent sum, was sweet revenge to him. Although some would see this as a convenient explanation, to be fair to Guppy, he makes clear that this was only part of his motivation, with sheer bravado and boredom with the gilded society in which he mixed playing at least as important a role. Two years after his sting against the world's largest insurers, however, he was betrayed by a supergrass who had struck a deal with police officers in return for leniency for his own criminal endeavours and Guppy found himself in Brixton jail. For me the most fascinationg aspect of the story is the insight given into the author's character. As a result of his exploits, Guppy became for a number of years a favourite subject matter for the British media - hardly surprising since his story could have come straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster - but his portrayal at their hands was at best two dimensional and, more often than not, plain libellous. One cannot help feeling that many of the criticisms levelled agaisnt him were prompted by envy and a sense of schadenfreude. The reader detects an interesting mix of anarchism and puritanism in the author, together with a profound dissatisfaction with the privileged and vacuous sloane ranger set with which he came into contact as a result of his upbringing. It is quite clear, for example, that he feels more at home with the armed robbers and assorted villains he meets in prison, and whom he describes as more interesting, more honourable and, paradoxically, more honest than the cocktail party set he found so dull. Interesting too is his friendship with Earl Spencer, brother of the Princess of Wales, with whom he bonds despite his background and not because of it, and also his love affair with a working class girl from the North of England whom he marries and with whom he has a child. Although a number of reviewers have labelled Guppy "arrogant" as a rsult of his actions, this seems a faulty description. Far from being arrogant, Guppy comes across as an intelligent and able young man with a sense of humour who feels empathy with those less fortunate than himself, such as his fellow inmates in jail, and as someone who has a deep sense of loyalty towards his family and friends. One suspects that it is his hatred of the media and his contempt for the upper echelons of English society and of the establishment whom he regards as hypocritical and immoral that have, in fact, earned him the label "arrogant." Rather, Guppy is a character with which any buccaneer from Elizabethan times or any 19th Century Anarchist would have identified. The world would surely be a duller place without such people.

As one who has personal knowledge about the investigation into Mr. Guppy, I think that he attempts to portray an extreme act of greed, and the fact that he got caught into a Robin Hood type of scenario. He eliminates most embarrassing mistakes, and focuses on how brilliant he is. Tis a shame, as the story could have been quite good.

One of the previous reviewers, using the name `Unforgiven', is in fact none other than the informant in the Darius Guppy story, a Peter Risdon.

This can be seen at [...] This is important because I think there is a different angle to this book, which I enjoyed very much, than other reviewers have pointed out. So while the whole Darius Guppy trial in the UK was a sensation because of the Royal connections, a jewellery robbery in a New York hotel, an act of vengeance against Lloyds of London (a large UK insurance company who had bankrupted Guppy's father along with many other `names'), keeping one step ahead of the law and all the other ingredients of a Hollywood movie, in fact underneath all of that is a another tale, the tale of a man, (the informant), who became obsessed with the other members of the team, in particular Darius Guppy, and how he was driven to betray his accomplices, not just to save his own skin from the cops but also by a bitter jealousy towards people who represented everything he wanted to be in life. It's also interesting how far the authorities were prepared to go to protect their informant in order to nail the rest of the team.

I won't spoil the plot for other readers but this is a really fascinating tale, not just because of its glamour factor but also because it deals with the old themes of envy and betrayal.

I recommend it as a great read and also recommend viewers to visit the website above because it contains a lot of useful material and evidence about how Darius Guppy and his partners were eventually caught, one year after pulling off their sting.

I had almost forgotten the Darius Guppy story until a friend of mine reminded me about it recently. So I decided to read Roll the Dice. Like a previous reviewer I thought that the editing left a lot to be desired but this may be the result of the two voices that can be detected in the book. The first voice comes across as the co-writer's or editor's where the style is more journalistic and racy. The second voice seems to be the author's itself, where the style is much more literate and reflective. It is this tension between what the co-author wants him to say and what the man himself wants to write that may account for the rather disjointed writing style and it is here that decent editing would have made a difference. A pity.

Having said this, I found the story immensely entertaining and interesting. Darius does not come across as remotely arrogant but as thoughtful and passionate and driven by conflicting forces.

In fact 'Elizebethan' is a word that springs to mind in considering his adventures - cunning, bold, foolhardy, noble, brave, foolhardy and no doubt sheer mad.

Although in the end he went to prison owing not so much to clever detective work as to the evidence of a police informer one senses that the final victory is his. All the forces of the police, Lloyds of London, the courts and the British media were unable to break him. He seems at the very least a fascinating man.

Well worth the read and it seems amazing that they haven't made a film of this book yet, especially when we consider how much the man packed in while he was still in his early twenties. Wonder what he's up to now.

Guppy comes across as a sharp focused egotistic and intelligent individual... believe me it takes one to know one.

Interesting read.

Guppy wasn't content merely to be busted for every crime he committed. He was caught three times smuggling gold and once for a crime, video counterfeiting, that he was still just planning. But his incompetence stretched also to his business activities. Riding the coat tails of the father of his business partner, Delerious (as the police christened him) raised over a million pounds from shareholders, cashed it and went round the world buying gemstones. And he was scammed, burned, conned and tricked at every turn. Faced with an inventory of paste, instead of gems, he conconcted the idea of a fake robbery in New York. But with a twist - he hired someone to help stage the robbery, then framed them for actually robbing him, as a precaution. If things went wrong, he reasoned, he'd be able to say he had actually been robbed. But the man sussed him out, partly by bugging D.'s house, phone and car. Two asides - While being bugged, D. hired the man who was doing it to de-bug his house. Sadly, nothing was found. And one of the dozens of tapes made during this time was released to the press, and embarrassed the rising Tory politician Boris Johnson. So Guppy found himself being shopped by the man he had himself shopped. No deals involved, no grassing - the man wasn't even charged with any offences. Guppy picked a fight and lost. Prosecution witnesses queued around the block, including all but one of Guppy's business associates - and that was the one in the dock beside him. Released from jail, bankrupt and disgraced, exposed again for criminal scheming by a newspaper, Guppy ran away from Britain and has never returned. None of this is in this contemptible little book. It will please fantasists and criminals. But nobody else.