Nostalgia: jigsaws

of jigsaws With reports that sales at why are rocketing, we look of us are discovering the more delights of the puzzle favourite

FUN FACT The Queen is a jigsaw lover. For many years she’s been a keen borrower from the British Jigsaw Puzzle Library, some of whose 3,500 wooden puzzles have been returned (it’s rumoured) with the odd Corgi bite!

Amid all the modern gadgets on offer today, it turns out more people of all ages are turning to an old-fashioned hobby to pass the time. Once the preserve of Christmas and rainy holidays, even the hot weather of this summer hasn’t deterred a surprising trend that has seen sales of jigsaw puzzles soar over recent months. In June alone, the online marketplace eBay sold 21,500 jigsaws – that’s one every two minutes – while John Lewis reported earlier this year that jigsaw sales had risen by 16 per cent in the past year. So strong is this resurgence that jigsaws were even included for the first time in the UK’s official Consumer Price Index shopping basket, which gives a measure of consumer spending patterns.

So what’s fuelling this jigsaw revival? One reason, the experts think, is the growing move towards mindfulness – the trend of focusing on the present moment to reduce stress and enjoy life more.

Kate Gibson, Managing Director of Gibsons Puzzles says, “There’s a renewed focus on mental health and piecing together a jigsaw is extremely relaxing and therapeutic. “Focusing the mind on a puzzle generates a similar effect to meditation as it produces a sense of peace and empties our brains of the stresses and anxieties we face every day.” Jigsaws are also proving a popular antidote to our increasingly digital world. “We know looking at a digital device all day isn’t good for our health,” says Sarah Watson from Wentworth Wooden Puzzles. “So we’re increasingly finding things like jigsaws to help us escape from that. There’s also a joy in the fact jigsaws are so simple and haven’t changed much over the years, despite the changing pace of technology around them.”

In fact, although they are the most technologically switched on generation, it seems younger people are among those driving the jigsaw renaissance. Sarah noted that 20 per cent of visitors on the Wentworth Puzzles website are in their 20s and 30s. Some of this might be down to recent celebrity endorsement of jigsaws – Hugh Jackman has shared videos on social media of him finishing a puzzle as he talks about the pleasure and pain of completing one. What’s more, the move