Piece de resistance: how jigsaws became a fashion accessory

The jigsaw is having a moment. Ditto other puzzles, games and brain teasers. Couples engage in post-coital sudoku (apparently). Wordle was played 4.8 billion times in 2023 (the lockdown invention of a young Welsh lad, Josh Wardle). Board game cafes have sprung up in cities.

This recent resurgence in the popularity of puzzles is partly a hangover from the Covid pandemic. Sales of jigsaws and board games soared 240 per cent during the first week of lockdown, with more puzzles being bought for adults than children. There are also wider reasons: the so-called ‘homebody economy’ and Scandi-inspired hygge lifestyle craze (think being wrapped up in blankets with a log-burning stove while your mates are on a night out). Then there’s the millennial and Gen-Z commitment to wellness and obsessive search for self-care and ‘balance’. If puzzling over the right way up for Mickey Mouse’s ears is part of that quest for good mental health who am I to argue? A box from Gibsons or Ravensburger is certainly cheaper than therapy.