caption birth_place birth_date alt image article_title name occupation
chris the tibet relief fund in 2004 maslanka at london-based treasure hunt in aid of london 27 october 1954 yes chris the tibet relief fund in 2004 maslanka at london-based treasure hunt in aid of chris maslanka.jpg chris maslanka
 chris maslanka british puzzle designer
chris maslanka

christopher m. maslanka -lrb- born 27 october 1954 -rrb- is a british writer and broadcaster , specialising in puzzles and problem solving .
he was born in clapham , london , but was brought up by his uncle and aunt in lowdham , nottingham .
he was educated at the becket school , nottingham and went on to study physics at st catherine 's college , oxford .
his first book - `` the pyrgic puzzler '' - a collection of 80 puzzles with illustrations by michael harrington , was written without any particular view to publication , but was taken up by iris murdoch who wrote an introduction for it in which she said that although she 's not a great solver of puzzles , the book may be ` read as literature ' just as in the case of wittgenstein 's `` tractatus '' and the bible .
he was invited by alan rusbridger to submit puzzles to weekend guardian and his two puzzle columns : `` wordplay '' and `` pyrgic puzzles '' have appeared in the saturday edition of the newspaper for 20 years .
a book interview with david freeman at bbc radio oxford led to maslanka 's contributing anecdotes and puzzles to many programmes and he was eventually given his own programme `` pdq '' which gave maslanka a freer rein for his peculiar blend of comedy and conundrums .
he was also invited by the world service to broadcast his humorous puzzle anecdotes to the hostages during the gulf war .
maslanka designed the puzzles for harry horse 's 1996 computer game , `` drowned god '' .
he presented the bbc radio 4 programme puzzle panel which was broadcast between 1998 and 2005 .
he has retained his association with st catherine 's college , oxford who have created a special post for him , that of a `` college enigmatist '' .
