May 2017 saw the publication of a bumper Special 24 Page Edition of the newsletter featuring 10 pages of quality photos of puzzles shown at the BCD House Party weekend held in Bournemouth in February and the March meeting at Normandy (see previous post). So a quick bit of Maths will tell you that it also contained 14 pages of interesting news, information and articles about puzzling and the BCD too!
John Hyde contributed an article to 
accompany the pictures of his lovely and evocative advertising puzzles which included Holtzapffel’s “Dick Whittington”, rail-inspired “Scarborough”, “Southport” and LNER’s “East Coast”, White Star Line’s ” RMS Majestic” , Cunard’s “Acquitania Outward Bound” and a more obscure South African poster for “Seltzbach” spring water.
David Shearer followed up his “Repairs” workshop and demonstration with an article referencing several puzzles he had worked on. These included the much-sought-after 1933 Chad Valley plywood “King Kong”, one of his personal favourites, ” The Conflagration of Moscow”, Holtzapffel’s “Sinbad” which came to him missing half of Sinbad’s face and thus required challenging artwork as well as skilful cutting to restore and another Holtzapffel “At The White Hart” that needed 17 replacement pieces making.
Barrie Hudson-Peacock’s wrote about his extensive Peacock Puzzle Box collection, spanning the period 1853-1924 (See photo at top of picture accompanying previous post) article and Jackie Armstrong celebrated the reported revival in the general popularity of games and in jigsaws in particular, now included in the UK’s official shopping basket. Among other articles were those that covered Tom Tyler’s talk on Lady Charlotte Finch, 18th century royal governess for three decades, who used jigsaws as part of her education of the royal children, Tom’s sole copy of a proposed but unpublished Wentworth puzzle of a painting of The Herzogen Cecile, the 1936 Australia to England Grain Race winning square rigged sailing ship that subsequently sank near Salcombe , and a note on celebrity puzzle enthusiasts Patrick Stewart and Bill and Melinda Gates.
A bumper edition indeed!