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Don Manley

b. 1945

British crossword compiler

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About Don Manley

Born 1945.

Don Manley (born 2 June 1945) is a long-serving setter of crosswords in the UK. He has supplied puzzles for the Radio Times, The Spectator, Today, The Independent, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and the Financial Times and the Sunday Times among others. He is crossword editor of Church Times.

He writes under the pseudonyms Duck, Pasquale, Quixote, Bradman, Giovanni, and Izetti (all punningly connected with the name Don or Donald). He has also written a book on devising and solving crosswords, Chambers Crossword Manual (1986, 5th edition October 2014).

He has appeared on the BBC Radio 4 panel game, Puzzle Panel, and anchored the BBC4 documentary "How to Solve a Cryptic Crossword".

Don Manley was brought up in Cullompton, Devon, attending local state schools and Blundell's School, Tiverton as a Foundation Scholar. He read physics at Bristol University. After a short spell in a telecommunications laboratory, he worked in academic and educational publishing at The Institute of Physics, Stanley Thornes, Basil Blackwell, and Oxford University Press, which he left in 2002 when crosswords took over as his sole paid occupation.

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Important facts

Birth century
Education
Blundell's School

People in Don Manley's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Don Manley's

Frequently asked questions

Who is Don Manley?

British crossword compiler

When was Don Manley born?

Don Manley was born on 2 June 1945.

Sources & further reading

Β· Wikipedia: Don Manley

Β· Wikidata: Q5293057

Β· DBpedia: Don Manley

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Don Manley. https://biography.guide/don-manley/

MLA: "Don Manley." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/don-manley/.

Chicago: "Don Manley." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/don-manley/.

Data last updated: 2026-09-20 Β· Spot an error? Report a correction.

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