Treasure Hunt — The British Museum Puzzle Book Review

Visiting the British Museum can be overwhelming. The dozens of galleries, covering every era of human history, contain more wonders and information than anyone could take in on a single day. Planning your route around the galleries will always force you to skip over many awe-inspiring artefacts, and it’s easy to feel like you’ve barely scratched the surface of what the institution has to offer. What you need is an expert guide, with comprehensive knowledge of all the best bits, and just such a text has come along in the form of Dr Gareth Moore’s The British Museum Puzzle Book.

Treasure map

This book provides a focussed look at many of the museum’s best pieces through the medium of puzzles. Several – such as sudoku, hanji, hashiwokakero – will be familiar to seasoned puzzlers, but all are elegantly tied into the relevant topic or artefact.

Packed with information, puzzles will often reveal additional facts once complete, and the solutions pages also have further insights into the history of the objects.

Moore explains historical detail and puzzle instructions alike with conversational ease, making the content accessible regardless of ability or prior knowledge. The book is divided into six chapters, covering the museum itself, everyday objects, animals, mythology, texts, and treasures.

Even for a frequent visitor to the museum, the author’s broad coverage is bound to throw up some as-yet-unseen novelty. Who knew the historic London landmark contained a Roman sock, or Queen Elizabeth I’s own musical instrument?

A wealth of opportunities

While the level of difficulty does somewhat ramp up in the latter half, the puzzles throughout provide a fair level of challenge without any major roadblocks, making it a pleasure to work through page by page, or to skip around in. The book itself is elegantly presented: easy to read, well-sized puzzles, and with paper that can withstand all your scribblings and rubbings out.

The only real issue is its lack of colour printing. The black-and-white illustrations rarely do the artefacts justice, and make puzzles that involve identifying the objects in question more challenging. But this is all the more encouragement to follow up with a trip, especially to see things you might previously have overlooked.

Hunting out your favourite entries in the book will undoubtedly enrich future visits, and encourage thorough exploration of some of the less famous galleries. Just as the museum celebrates the diversity of human history, this book highlights the range of possibilities when it comes to puzzles, and is thus perfect for fans of either.

The British Museum Puzzle Book is available now from Thames & Hudson, £16.99