David Astle

David Astle
Born	November 9, 1961 Sydney, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Writer

David Astle (born November 9, 1961 in Sydney, Australia) is a Melbourne-based writer of non-fiction, fiction and plays. He also cohosts the SBS show, Letters and Numbers, as the dictionary expert, in company with Richard Morecroft and Lily Serna.^[1]

His cryptic crosswords appearing under the name DA in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald 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 was shortlisted for the Archibald Prize, painted by artist Amanda Marburg.

His latest book is Puzzled: Secrets and Clues from a Life Lost in Words, a blend of memoir, wordplay history and solver’s manual. He won third prize in the 1990 The Age Short Story Award 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.^[4] In 2008 his play Cowboy Humour will be part of the Short & Sweet play festival,^[5] which has previously featured Astle's plays including The Gentleman Had An Axe in 2007^[6] and The Mercy Kitchen.^[7]

He has taught journalism at RMIT University and in 2004 was awarded a DSC Teaching Award for best sessional teacher.^[8]

Bibliography

Novels

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

Non-fiction

• Puzzled: Secrets and Clues From a Life Lost in Words (Allen & Unwin, 2010) 9781742372785
• Cassowary Crossing (Penguin Books, 2005) ISBN 0-14-300169-8; (re-jacketed as Offbeat Australia (Penguin Books, 2007) ISBN 9780143007425)
• One Down, One Missing (Hardie Grant Books, 2003) 9781740661416

Plays

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

References

1. ^ http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/lettersandnumbers/cast/detail/id/642
2. ^ Carew, Anthony (2008-07-11). "A way with words". Melbourne: theage.com.au. http://www.theage.com.au/news/music/a-way-with-words/2008/07/10/1215658007308.html. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
3. ^ "Rush Hour www.theage.com.au". Melbourne: Theage.com.au. 2007-03-08. http://www.theage.com.au/news/culture/rush-hour/2007/03/08/1173166864909.html. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
4. ^ "A mind field of puzzling pleasure - theage.com.au". Melbourne: Theage.com.au. 2002-05-26. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/05/25/1022243278064.html. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
5. ^ "Week 3 program | Short & Sweet". Shortandsweet.org. http://www.shortandsweet.org/node/302. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
6. ^ http://assets.theartscentre.net.au/shortandsweet/rscs/2007%20Files/070828;%20S&S%20Season%20Outline%2021107.pdf
7. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
8. ^ "DSC Teaching Award Winners 2004". RMIT. 2004-10-01. http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse/Our%20Organisation%2FDesign%20and%20Social%20Context%2FNews%2Fby%20date%2F;ID=80ga9pnna49j;STATUS=A. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 

External links

• Official site
• 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

Persondata
Name	Astle, David
Alternative names
Short description	award-winning Melbourne-based writer of non-fiction, fiction, plays and crosswords
Date of birth	1961
Place of birth	Sydney
Date of death
Place of death