David Astle

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]

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. 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.[4] His play Cowboy Humour was part of the Short and Sweet play festival in 2008,[5] which has previously featured Astle's plays including The Gentleman Had An Axe in 2007[6] and The Mercy Kitchen.[7]

Astle has taught journalism at RMIT University and in 2004 was awarded a DSC Teaching Award for best sessional teacher.[8] 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).[9]

From 2015 he was a fill-in host on 774 ABC Melbourne as well as a regular word expert on ABC TV's News Breakfast. In 2019 he began hosting the Evenings radio program on ABC Melbourne and ABC Local Radio in Victoria.[10]