Let’s build a Lego house and relax our troubled minds

Christine Manby rediscovers a pastime that is creative, clean, quiet and safe – unless you step on a loose piece in bare feet

Illustration by Tom Ford

Over the past few years, there’s been a definite movement towards looking back to childhood to find wellness solutions for adult problems. Remember the adult colouring book craze of 2015? It really was a craze. According to figures from Nielsen Bookscan, 12 million adult colouring books crossed the tills that year as stressed-out grown-ups picked up their felt-tips and attempted to scribble their way back to happiness. I tried it myself, with a very chic colouring book based on vintage Vogue covers, a Christmas gift from my best friend. It certainly took me back.

As I chose Schiaparelli pink for a ballgown, I was back at Christmas 1980, when my parents refused my request for a Fashion Wheel toy, telling me that I could draw the outfit outlines myself. As a result, the adult colouring book trend left me feeling mostly guilty as I remembered the numerous half-finished sketchbooks languishing in the loft.

But the trend for casting off your worries by pretending you’re six again isn’t going anywhere soon. Since colouring books have fallen from favour, the grown-ups have been taking over the playground, monopolising the sandpit and the slides. There are even “ball pit bars” in Shoreditch and Soho. Personally, I hated playgrounds when I was small enough to use them and if you’d stuck six-year-old me in a ball pit, I’m pretty sure it would have scarred me for life.