news | Tuesday December 19, 2023

A Cozy Winter Excerpt from M.A.C. Farrant

There’s a nip in the air and our winter coats are showing that seasonal lived-in wear, which means it’s time for a cherished annual tradition we have here at Talonbooks: a witty snippet from M.A.C. Farrant to bring a little coziness to the start of winter! This piece appears in Farrant’s new book, Jigsaw: A Puzzle in Ninety-Three Pieces featuring an illustration by andrea bennett.

Talonbooks’ offices will be closed from December 22nd until the morning of January 2nd. Happy Holidays, everyone!

This is a picture of the jigsaw puzzle my husband Terry and I are currently working on: “Four Ducks and a Swan.” The cardboard pieces are heaped on the old blue card table.

One of the puzzle’s purposes is to aid us in passing time during these long winter evenings. Ordinarily, we’d be passing time by watching police procedurals on BritBox. We like the Detective Chief Inspectors, who have interesting flaws – OCD, politically incorrect behaviour, addiction to pain pills. Many are broody and loveless.

“Four Ducks and a Swan” has an important purpose, which has to do with our brains. We’ve been advised that watching police procedurals every night is bad for them because police procedurals weaken our brains, leaving them flat, dull, and devoid of imaginative content. Jigsaw puzzles eradicate this problem because they enhance the brain’s function.

“Assembling and fitting the pieces together [is] a form of carpentry,” says writer and jigsaw historian Margaret Drabble. “Using the glue of jigsaws, we are reframing our brains.”

We would rather find a body in a ditch and piece together the mystery of how it got there, but never mind. For now, it is Drabble, Drabble, Drabble: Four Ducks and a Swan on a Pond.

So much depends upon the sawing and hammering in our desiccated brains.