Having completed Jan van Haasteren’s Crazy Harbour about ten days ago, I noted that, although one piece was, sadly, missing (thus rendering it a 1499-piece puzzle), it was at least missing from somewhere appropriate on the picture. That place showed should have shown four passengers in a small and rapidly sinking boat, but instead only three were visible.
More than a week on, I was tidying a few things in one corner of the living room and moved a space heater (redundant for the time being, thanks to the onset of springtime) from in front of the sideboard. There it was, the missing piece, underneath, if not thirty fathoms of salty sea water, at least half an inch of dust bunny!
It may be a mere jigsaw piece to most people, but to us it was like raising the Titanic.
We have dubbed the little grey-suited fellow a jigsaw shipwreck survivor. In real life he would, after the inevitable course of counselling to overcome the effects of his ordeal, sell his story for a handsome fee to one of those tacky tabloid newspapers. In this house, however, he has been reunited with the rest of his body — and with the other 1499 pieces of the puzzle — and plonked back in the box where he belongs. We’ll be keeping a close eye on him from now on.


