Background
He was born in Clapham, London, but was brought up by his uncle and aunt in Lowdham, Nottingham.
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Chris Maslanka
Edit ProfileEducation
He was educated at The Becket School, Nottingham and went on to study physics at Street Catherine"s College, Oxford.
Career
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 British Broadcasting Corporation Radio Oxford led to Maslanka"s contributing anecdotes and puzzles to many programmes and he was eventually given his own programme Physicians’ Data Query 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.
He presented the British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4 programme Puzzle Panel which was broadcast between 1998 and 2005. He has retained his association with Street Catherine"s College, Oxford who have created a special post for him, that of a "College Enigmatist".
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Born
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Nationality
United Kingdom