David Astle

David Astle
Born	(1961-11-09) 9 November 1961 (age 63) Sydney, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation(s)	TV personality, radio host, writer, playwright, crossword compiler
Known for	Letters and Numbers, Newspaper crosswords

David Astle (born 9 November 1961) is an Australian TV personality and radio host, and writer of non-fiction, fiction and plays. He also co-hosted the SBS Television (SBS) show Letters and Numbers, as the dictionary expert, in company with Richard Morecroft and Lily Serna,^[1] a role to which he returned for Celebrity Letters and Numbers in 2021.

Career

Astle's cryptic crosswords, appearing under the name "DA" in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald (for which he also writes the "Wordplay" section), have developed a large following which includes musician Holly Throsby^[2] and actor Geoffrey Rush. Rush called him "the Sergeant Pepper of cryptic crosswords".^[3] In 2011, his portrait called "DA" painted by artist Amanda Marburg, was shortlisted for the Archibald Prize.

Astle's 2013 book Cluetopia: The story of 100 years of the crossword celebrates the centenary of the crossword with a chapter for each year. Astle is a three times winner of the Banjo Paterson Writing Award.^[4] He won third prize in The Age Short Story Award in 1990 and his first novel, Marzipan Plan, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. In 2001 he won the James Joyce Suspended Sentence Award for short fiction.^[5] His play Cowboy Humour was part of the Short and Sweet play festival in 2008,^[6] which has previously featured Astle's plays including The Gentleman Had An Axe in 2007^[7] and The Mercy Kitchen.^[8]

Astle has taught journalism at RMIT University and in 2004 was awarded a DSC Teaching Award for best sessional teacher.^[9] In 2013, he helped create the word "phub" (a portmanteau of phone and snub), for when someone is ignored in favour of a mobile phone.^[10]

Radio & Television

In 2010 Astle was part of Letters and Numbers, an Australian reboot of the UK series Countdown. Astle was the dictionary expert alongside host Richard Morecroft and maths expert Lily Serna. The show was produced by Shine Australia and ran for two seasons on SBS TV.

From 2015 Astle was a fill-in host on ABC Radio Melbourne as well as a regular word expert on ABC TV's News Breakfast.

In December 2019, Astle was appointed as host of the Evenings radio program on ABC Radio Melbourne and ABC Local Radio in Victoria replacing Lindy Burns.^[11] Throughout 2019 Astle filled in for Burns whilst she was on long service leave.

In 2021 Celebrity Letters and Numbers was created with Astle returning as dictionary expert alongside Serna and new host Michael Hing.^[12] The show is currently in its third season and has featured guests including Nakkaih Lui, Aaron Chen and Benjamin Law.^[13]

Bibliography

Novels

• Marzipan Plan
• The Book of Miles (Minerva, 1997) 1-86330-589-0

Non-fiction

• "Rewording the Brain" (Allen & Unwin, 2018) ISBN 9781760295486
• "Riddledom: 101 Riddles and Their Stories" (Allen & Unwin, 2015) ISBN 9781760112608
• "Cluetopia: The story of 100 years of the crossword" (Allen & Unwin, 2013) ISBN 9781743314531
• "Puzzles and Words 1" (Allen & Unwin, 2013) 9781743318546
• "Puzzles and Words 2" (Allen & Unwin, 2013) 9781743318546
• Puzzled: Secrets and Clues From a Life Lost in Words (Allen & Unwin, 2010) ISBN 9781742372785
• Cassowary Crossing (Penguin Books, 2005) ISBN 0-14-300169-8; (re-jacketed as Offbeat Australia (Penguin Books, 2007) ISBN 978-0-14-300742-5)
• One Down, One Missing (Hardie Grant Books, 2003) 9781740661416

For children

• Wordburger (Allen & Unwin, 2015) ISBN 9781760113575
• David Astle's Gargantuan Book of Words (Allen & Unwin, 2017) ISBN 9781760296223
• David Astle's 101 Weird Words (and 3 fakes): From Ambidextrous to Zugzwang (Allen & Unwin, 2018) ISBN 9781760633660

Plays

• The Gentleman Had an Axe (2007)
• Cowboy Humour (2008)
• The Mercy Kitchen (2008)

References

1. "Programs".
2. Carew, Anthony (11 July 2008). "A way with words". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
3. "Rush Hour www.theage.com.au". The Age. Melbourne. 8 March 2007. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
4. List of Award Winner in the Orange Wiki: www.theorangewiki.orange.nsw.gov.au, Accessed 22 August 2021. Bio at the Australian Literature Website: www.austlit.edu.au, Accessed 22 August 2021
5. "A mind field of puzzling pleasure - theage.com.au". The Age. Melbourne. 26 May 2002. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
6. "Week 3 program | Short and Sweet". Shortandsweet.org. Archived from the original on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
7. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
8. "Shortlist: N-Z | Short+Sweet". shortandsweet.org. Archived from the original on 6 February 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
9. "DSC Teaching Award Winners 2004". RMIT. 1 October 2004. Archived from the original on 12 September 2006. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
10. "Twerk, selfie and bitcoin, our popular words of 2013 - ABC (None) - Australian Broadcasting Corporation". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
11. "ABC Radio Melbourne announces 2019 line-up". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 5 December 2018.
12. "SBS Presents Celebrity Letters & Numbers". 2 September 2021.
13. "Celebrity Letters and Numbers". IMDb.

External links

• Official site
• Cryptopia, a short documentary on DA and his crosswords
• Hacronyms, an article by David Astle
• The DA Trippers, a blog that pays homage to DA cryptics
• Alias DA, an essay that originally appeared in Meanjin about how Astle sees words and the world
• Astle's profile on Letters and Numbers website
• David Astle Re-works Words a Wheeler Centre video
• David Astle on ABC's The Conversation Hour
• Phubbing: A Word is Born video
• Leaping lexicons: David Astle and the joy of words on ABC's Conversations
• Do Not Ask for Whom the Pinball Chimes, David Astle at the Wheeler Centre Gala 2017.
• David Astle on ABC Radio.
• Lunch with David Astle: How he creates his notoriously tricky crosswords.