Five Questions for David Astle
JA
September 02
David Astle has driven the world to delight and despair as crossword setter DA, appearing in both the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age. He’s currently the host of the SBS quiz show Letters and Numbers and his latest book, Puzzled has just been released by Allen & Unwin. In the latest of our Spike mini-interviews, JA traded vowels with DA over the digital divide to find out about the BBC’s scruffy dilettantes, looking sideways at Trattorias, and why a good word combo should always be al dente but delicious.
What’s a typical day spent compiling crosswords like for you? Can you describe your routine?
No matter how rabid any week gets – with writing projects or the Letters and Numbers show – I live for the calm that crossword-setting brings. It’s like a narcotic, but purer. Any time I can steal the chance, the quiet of man-versus-grid, I love that impossible quest to make the perfect mesh, using the latest swag of words and clue ideas I’ve gathered in the meantime.
I make two crosswords a week for Fairfax, plus a daily word puzzle called Wordwit for Sydney and Brisbane. On top of that, I compose a weekly code puzzle called Radar Trap, playing with topics like Famous Quakers or Edible Geography – plus a word column every Saturday for the Herald’s Spectrum. Yeah, it keeps me honest. Besides, it’s important that I keep Garson Hampfield in coffee and cigarettes.
If we made a surprise visit to your workspace, what would we see?
My acute embarrassment, probably. It’s a dump. Though the essential pencil is in reach. My office sits down back in the family home, an old extension jutting into the begonias. Directly at my back are two bookcases loaded with language titles; at my fingertips is a PC for extra help with the more difficult interlocks. By the way, since you’re here – you want a cup of tea?
How do you come up with ideas for clues? Can you take us through the process of one you did recently?
Recently I look sideways at TRATTORIA. Not only does it end with A (a nice rarity) but the word spells AI-ROT-TART backwards, the raw material of a reversal clue. So when the pattern and moment were right, I inserted the word across other selections (like LOBSTER and GREAT FIREWALL OF CHINA), inspiring the clue: Restaurant served up fine baloney dessert (9).
Other times the word comes first, usually because nothing else fits the grid, and these entries can often trigger inspired clues. It’s like creating at gunpoint. One example, from the same puzzle, was LULL: Calm upstart, mid-fifties (4).
If you weren’t a professional puzzler, what would be your alternate career?
Aside from being Thom Yorke you mean? (I am prone to passing band obsessions…) I’ve always envied the savvy of Andrew Denton, and there’s no doubting the immense pleasure that teaching brings – swimming in language amid others who love words. I don’t know. Maybe one of those scruffy dilettantes who haunt the BBC, introducing you to St Petersburg or the Luddite Movement.
Everyone battles to solve your puzzles, but whose puzzles do you battle to solve?
I may be difficult, but there’s a good reason for that. If you like computer games, you can’t keep playing Pong all day. You need a new labyrinth, and ditto goes for crosswords. If you find the midweek stuff breezier by the year, and you feel like something chewy – I can help.
That said, there’s no point tackling the maze if don’t have fun along the way. Humour and ahas have to make the trip worth it. For me, those setters who offer this combo – al dente but delicious – are Paul and Araucaria in the Guardian plus Loroso, Cincinnus & Mudd in the Financial Times. I could list more, but that’s a fine bunch for starters.
A more secret pleasure is a passion for American crosswords. Oh boy, can these dudes get creative with squares and letters. Their work may not be cryptic, but their themes and patterns can be wonders to behold. Seek out setters like Quigley, Hook, Blindauer, Gorski, Berry and Reagle. That’s enough. At their best, they are alchemists.
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Comments
03 Sep 10 at 17:52
Not sure whether DA realises this, but Paul and Mudd are one and the same person. person as Cincinnus. All the others mentioned except Loroso are in both FT and Guardian with different names.
[dodgy link: the link for the US setters goes to the FT crosswords page]
...03 Sep 10 at 18:17
Sorry, confusing screw-up there: delete “, person as Cincinnus” – Paul=Mudd but neither of them = Cincinnus.
...30 Nov 11 at 15:54
My dad was a very independent man and a word he used often was “poling” or “pole”. He would not ask for help and “I don’t like to pole on people” I think the word might be a boating expression where you use a pole to manoeuvre i.e. around a jetty etc. So using someone else to further oneself. But I have yet to meet anyone who is familiar with the term. Any information would be appreciated.
...11 Jan 12 at 16:33
Hi David, I am an avid fan of Letters and Numbers and I almost go to pieces if for some reason I miss a show or, worse, the phone rings while I’m watching it!! Worse still if that happens while I’m trying to solve the word mix in the breaks!! :( Anyway, that’s not my reason for touching base with you. On last night’s show you mentioned that you write drama scripts. Well, guess what? – so do I! Mine are short sermon enhancers based on scripture. I have self published two books and am working on the third. Anyway, just thought you’d like to know that, like you, I have been gifted in that area. Hey, keep up the good work and…..don’t you dare ever leave Letters and Numbers! :) God bless you David.
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