Christopher M. Maslanka (born 27 October 1954) 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.
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".[1]
He designed the puzzles for a 1996 computer game Drowned God: Conspiracy of the Ages, written by Harry Horse.