The return of the board game evening

Board games were supposed to be a casualty of the screen, and for a while they were. Then something turned. Cafes devoted to them opened in cities that could not sustain a bookshop. Publishers of thoughtful, slow games found an audience that wanted exactly that: a table, three hours, and other people's faces.

The appeal is not nostalgia. The games are better than the ones most adults remember, with real decisions and no waiting for a dice roll to end a turn. But the games are not really the point. The evening is. A board game is a structured reason to sit with people and not look at anything else.

If you have not tried it since childhood, borrow one from a cafe and bring three friends. The first hour will be awkward. The second will not. By the third you will have booked the next one.