The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws

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Review "Drabble's nuanced and revealing jigsaw of vivid memories, little-known facts, and astute observations is both mind-expanding and mood-elevating.""A charming homage...Readers unafraid of doing some extra work will be richly rewarded.""...a fascinating journey...Drabble charms...One of the true pleasures of the book is following Drabble's insatiable curiosity, her scholarly zeal for research and love of knowledge for the sake of knowledge to see where she ends up." Read more From the Back Cover "Drabble s England is as intricate as Dickens s, her characters as headstrong as Austen s, the morals at stake entirely Waughian, her powers of observation positively Woolf ." Washington Post An extraordinary blend of memoir, history, and the strange delights of puzzling, The Pattern in the Carpet weaves prolific novelist Margaret Drabble s memories into a fascinating, and singular, survey of games and jigsaws, pastimes that have offered her relief from melancholy and depression throughout the years. Alongside curious facts and discoveries about jigsaws, Drabble introduces us to her remarkable Auntie Phyl recounting their travels, the books they read, the jigsaws they completed and offers penetrating insight into the importance of childhood play, into art and writing, and into aging and memory. And she does so with her customary intelligence, energy, and wit. This is a journey like no other."Unlike anything else in the bookstore." Christian Science Monitor "Fascinating." Boston Globe Margaret Drabble is the author of The Sea Lady, The Seven Sisters, The Peppered Moth, and The Needle s Eye, among other novels. She is the editor of the fifth and sixth editions of The Oxford Companion to English Literature. For her contributions to contemporary English literature, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2008." Read more See all Editorial Reviews