Peter Stocken the puzzlemaker
Peter Stocken started cutting jigsaws at the age of seven, following in the footsteps of his mother, who cut her first in 1915 and continued cutting until her death in 1983. She was described on BBC's Antique Show in April 2000, as "one of the finest, if not the finest, jigsaw cutters of the twentieth century".
Peter was educated at Winchester and, after an enjoyable year of not reading Chemistry at Exeter College, Oxford, he eventually obtained a degree in English Literature from Trinity College, Dublin. For five years after leaving university he worked for the Thomson Organisation.
He first cut jigsaws as a full-time occupation in 1972, then moved to Yorkshire in 1973, where he devised and developed his own particular form of three-dimensional puzzle. Initially he had intended them to be considered primarily as puzzles, but much to his surprise he discovered that most people acquired them as objets d'art, to feel, to look at, but rarely to take apart. Country Life magazine chose Peter as one of their 'Living National Treasures' in 1994.
Peter's family
Peter and his family live in a remote farmhouse in Yorkshire, which he and his wife Dinah converted from a roofless ruin during the mid-seventies. She is a judge, but still finds time to help with the puzzles and the jigsaws. All four of their children started cutting traditional jigsaws at an early age; Claudia and Simon continue to do so, having developed their own distinctive style of cutting and they have built up their own coterie of admirers. Max, their eldest grandson, aged eight, has already cut several jigsaws himself.
The family's other abiding passion is the game of Bridge. Jack, Simon and Zebedee all earn their living from teaching the game, whilst Dinah and Claudia are consummate players of it. For the last two decades Peter has been heavily involved in the administration of the game and has twice been Chairman of the English Bridge Union.