Friday’s Library snapshot …

Jigsaw puzzles seem to have passed me by; in two ways.  I don’t remember having them as a child; although my friends had them. So I understand the concept if not the attraction.  I tried to help them complete the jigsaw when I visited.  I was intrigued by the way the dining room table was taken over for days on end. Meals were served on laps.  Or the jigsaw was man handled with great care to and fro and with much swearing even in the most genteel household; I noticed.  Until the jigsaw was back in place and silence reigned again when the group re-camped hunched over the puzzle. .
Such an operation could not be considered when living on a houseboat. So this probably explains why we didn’t have a mountain of jigsaw puzzles beside our dining room table.  As a result I am blissfully unaware of the rich history, the artistry and the technical production of jigsaw puzzles. So when I came across this book in the library this week I was pleasantly surprised and sad that I had not noticed them before.
British jigsaw puzzles of the 20th century by Tom Tyler tells the history of jigsaws from the ‘ingenious’ wooden ones in the early 1900s  through to the 2nd World War when paper was restricted  until 1997 when three-dimensional puzzles were introduced

As I grew up near the Southampton Water I would have seen ships like these come and go regularly.