Spell bound: the enduring appeal of word puzzles

The remarkable rise of the viral sensation Wordle, which the New York Times recently bought, is just the latest in a very long line of word puzzles that have intrigued us down the centuries

I scored a two in Wordle the other day. God. The rush, as the five squares in the second line blinked green, one by one, touched on the sublime. I felt like Mary Magdalen in the Caravaggio painting, lost in ecstasy. Oh mama.

Up until this point, I had considered that those who found the solution in two guesses were simply lucky. Consistent threes and fours - this was a surer marker of Wordle prowess. Once I had scored a two myself, however, I began to doubt this hypothesis. Surely, only the most elite players could manage such a feat. Surely, I was now part of this pantheon.