David Astle

David Astle (born 9 November 1961 in Sydney, Australia) is a Melbourne-based writer of non-fiction, fiction and plays. He also cohosted the SBS show, Letters and Numbers, as the dictionary expert, in company with Richard Morecroft and Lily Serna.
His cryptic crosswords, appearing under the name "DA" in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, have developed a large following which includes musician Holly Throsby and actor Geoffrey Rush. Rush called him "the Sergeant Pepper of cryptic crosswords." In 2011, his portrait called DA was shortlisted for the Archibald Prize, painted by artist Amanda Marburg.
His latest book is Cluetopia: The story of 100 years of the crossword celebrating the centenary of the crossword with a chapter for each year. 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. His play Cowboy Humour was part of the Short and Sweet play festival in 2008, which has previously featured Astle's plays including The Gentleman Had An Axe in 2007 and The Mercy Kitchen.
He has taught journalism at RMIT University and in 2004 was awarded a DSC Teaching Award for best sessional teacher. In 2013, he helped create the word phub (a portmanteau of phone and snub, used when someone is ignored in favour of a mobile phone).