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Malcolm Muggeridge

Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990)[1][2] was an English journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romford, in Essex). In his twenties, Muggeridge was attracted to communism and went to live in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, and the experience turned him into an anti-communist.

Malcolm Muggeridge
Born
Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge

(1903-03-24)24 March 1903
Died14 November 1990(1990-11-14) (aged 87)
NationalityBritish
Alma materSelwyn College, Cambridge
Occupations
  • Journalist
  • author
  • satirist
Spouse
(m. 1927)
Children4
RelativesH. T. Muggeridge (father)

During World War II, he worked for the British government as a soldier and a spy, first in East Africa for two years and then in Paris. In the aftermath of the war, he converted to Christianity under the influence of Hugh Kingsmill and helped to bring Mother Teresa to popular attention in the West. He was also a critic of the sexual revolution and of drug use.

Muggeridge kept detailed diaries for much of his life, which were published in 1981 under the title Like It Was: The Diaries of Malcolm Muggeridge, and he developed them into two volumes of an uncompleted autobiography Chronicles of Wasted Time.[3]

Early life and career

Muggeridge's father, Henry (known as H. T. Muggeridge), served as a Labour Party councillor in the local government of Croydon, South London, as a founder-member of the Fabian Society,[2] and as a Labour Member of Parliament for Romford (1929–1931) during Ramsay MacDonald's second Labour government. Muggeridge's biographer Richard Ingrams described H.T. as "a small bearded man with a large frame, a twinkling eye, and a rather bulbous nose which he passed on to his son."[4] Muggeridge's mother was Annie Booler.

The middle of five brothers, Muggeridge was born in Sanderstead, Surrey. His first name, Thomas, was chosen by H.T. in honor of his hero Thomas Carlyle.[4] He grew up in Croydon and attended Selhurst High School there and then Selwyn College, Cambridge, for four years. Still a student, he taught for brief periods in 1920, 1922 and 1924 at the John Ruskin Central School, Croydon, where his father was Chairman of the Governors. After graduating in 1924 with a pass degree in natural sciences, he went to British India for three years to teach English literature at Union Christian College, Aluva, Kingdom of Cochin. His writing career began during his time in the Kingdom via an exchange of correspondence on war and peace with Mahatma Gandhi, with Muggeridge's article on the interactions being published in Young India, a local magazine.

Returning to Britain in 1927, he married Katherine "Kitty" Dobbs (1903–1994),[a] the daughter of Rosalind Dobbs (a younger sister of Beatrice Webb).[5] He worked as a supply teacher before he moved to teach English literature in Egypt six months later. There he met Arthur Ransome, who was visiting Egypt as a journalist for the Manchester Guardian. Ransome recommended Muggeridge to the newspaper' editors, who offered him his first position in journalism.[6]

Moscow

Initially attracted by communism, Muggeridge and his wife travelled to Moscow in 1932. He was to be a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian standing in for William Henry Chamberlin, who was about to take a leave of absence. During Muggeridge's early time in Moscow he was completing a novel, Picture Palace, loosely based on his experiences and observations at the Manchester Guardian. It was completed and submitted to publishers in January 1933, but there was concern by the publishers over potential libel claims, and the published book was not distributed. Very few first-edition copies exist today. That setback caused considerable financial difficulties for Muggeridge, who was not employed and was paid only for articles that were accepted.

Increasingly disillusioned by his close observation of communism in practice, Muggeridge decided to investigate reports of the famine in Ukraine by travelling there and to the Caucasus without first obtaining the permission of the Soviet authorities. The revealing reports that he sent back to The Manchester Guardian in the diplomatic bag, thus evading censorship, were not fully printed, and those that were published (on 25, 27 and 28 March 1933) were not published under Muggeridge's name.[7][8] Meanwhile, fellow journalist Gareth Jones, who had met Muggeridge in Moscow, published his own stories. The two accounts helped to confirm the extent of a forced famine, which was politically motivated. Writing in The New York Times Walter Duranty denied the existence of any famine,[9] and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Jones wrote letters to the Manchester Guardian in support of Muggeridge's articles about the famine.

Having come into conflict with British newspapers' editorial policy of not provoking the authorities in the Soviet Union,[10] Muggeridge returned to novel writing. He wrote Winter in Moscow (1934), which describes conditions in the "socialist utopia" and satirised Western journalists' uncritical view of the Soviet regime. He was later to call Duranty "the greatest liar I have met in journalism". Later, he began a writing partnership with Hugh Kingsmill. Muggeridge's politics changed from an independent socialist point of view to a conservative religious stance that was no less critical of society. He wrote later:

I wrote in a mood of anger, which I find rather absurd now: not so much because the anger was, in itself, unjustified, as because getting angry about human affairs is as ridiculous as losing one's temper when an air flight is delayed.

— Muggeridge 1982, p. 274

Return to India

After his time in Moscow, Muggeridge worked on other newspapers, including The Statesman in Calcutta, of which he was editor in 1934 to 1936. In his second stint in India, he lived by himself in Calcutta, having left behind his wife and children in London. Between 1930 and 1936, the Muggeridges had three sons and a daughter.[11] His office was in the headquarters of the newspaper in Chowringhee.

Second World War

When war was declared, Muggeridge went to Maidstone to join up but was sent away: "My generation felt they'd missed the First War, now was the time to make up."[12] He was called into the Ministry of Information, which he called "a most appalling set-up", and joined the army as a private. He joined the Corps of Military Police and was commissioned on the General List in May 1940.[13] He transferred to the Intelligence Corps as a lieutenant in June 1942.[14] Having spent two years as a Regimental Intelligence Officer in Britain, he was by 1942 in MI6 and had been posted to Lourenço Marques, the capital of Mozambique, as a bogus vice-consul (called a Special Correspondent by London Controlling Section).[15] Before heading out, Muggeridge stayed in Portugal for one day. He stayed in Estoril at the Pensão Royal on 17 May 1942.[16]

His mission was to prevent information about Allied convoys off the coast of Africa falling into enemy hands.[17] He wrote later that he also attempted suicide.[citation needed] After the Allied occupation of North Africa, he was posted to Algiers as liaison officer with the French sécurité militaire. In that capacity, he was sent to Paris at the time of the liberation and worked alongside Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces. He had a high regard for de Gaulle and considered him a greater man than Churchill.[18] He was warned to expect some anti-British feeling in Paris because of the attack on Mers-el-Kébir. In fact, Muggeridge, speaking on the BBC retrospective programme Muggeridge: Ancient & Modern, said that he had encountered no such feeling and indeed had been allowed on occasion to eat and drink for nothing at Maxim's. He was assigned to make an initial investigation into P. G. Wodehouse's five broadcasts from Berlin during the war. Though he was prepared to dislike Wodehouse, the interview became the start of a lifelong friendship and publishing relationship as well as the subject for several plays. He also interviewed Coco Chanel in Paris about the nature of her involvement with the Nazis in Vichy France during the war.[19] Muggeridge ended the war as a major, having received the Croix de Guerre from the French government for undisclosed reasons.

Later life

Muggeridge wrote for the Evening Standard and also for The Daily Telegraph where he was appointed deputy editor in 1950. He kept detailed diaries, which provide a vivid picture of the journalistic and political London of the day, including regular contact with George Orwell, Anthony Powell, Graham Greene and Bill Deedes; and he comments perceptively on Ian Fleming, Guy Burgess and Kim Philby. Muggeridge also acted as Washington correspondent for The Daily Telegraph. He was editor of Punch magazine from 1953 to 1957, a challenging appointment for one who claimed that "there is no occupation more wretched than trying to make the English laugh". One of his first acts was to sack the illustrator E.H. Shepard.[20] In 1957, he received public and professional opprobrium for criticism of the British monarchy in a US magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. The article was given the title "Does England Really Need a Queen?", and its publication was delayed by five months to coincide with the Royal State Visit to Washington, DC taking place later that year. It was little more than a rehash of views expressed in a 1955 article, Royal Soap Opera, but its timing caused outrage in the UK, and a contract with Beaverbrook newspapers was cancelled. His notoriety then propelled him into becoming better known as a broadcaster, with regular appearances on the BBC's Panorama, and a reputation as a tough interviewer. Encounters with Brendan Behan and Salvador Dalí cemented his reputation as a fearless critic of modern life.

Muggeridge was described as having predatory behaviour towards women during his BBC years.[21] He was described as a "compulsive groper", reportedly being nicknamed "The Pouncer" and as "a man fully deserving of the acronym NSIT—not safe in taxis". While confirming the facts and the suffering inflicted on his family, his niece said that he changed his behaviour when he converted to Christianity in the 1960s.[22]

In the early 1960s, Muggeridge became a vegetarian so that he would be "free to denounce those horrible factory farms where animals are raised for food".[23]

He took to frequently denouncing the new sexual laxity of the Swinging Sixties on radio and television. He particularly railed against "pills and pot"—birth control pills and cannabis.

In contrast, he met the Beatles before they were famous. On 7 June 1961 he flew to Hamburg for an interview with the Stern magazine and afterwards went out on the town and ended up at the Top Ten Club on the Reeperbahn. In his diary, he described their performance as "bashing their instruments, and emitting nerveless sounds into microphones". However, they recognized him from the television and they entered into conversation. He acknowledged that "their faces [were] like Renaissance carvings of the saints or Blessed Virgins".[24]

His book, Tread Softly for You Tread on My Jokes (1966), though acerbic in its wit, revealed a serious view of life. The title is an allusion to the last line of the poem Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats: "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." In 1967, he preached at Great St Mary's, Cambridge, and again in 1970.

Having been elected Rector of Edinburgh University, Muggeridge was goaded[citation needed] by the editor of The Student, Anna Coote, to support the call for contraceptive pills to be available at the University Health Centre. He used a sermon at St Giles' Cathedral in January 1968 to resign the post to protest against the Student Representative Council's views on "pot and pills". The sermon was published under the title "Another King".

Muggeridge resigned as a judge for the 1971 Booker Prize because of his "general lack of sympathy with entries for this year's Booker Prize" and was replaced on the panel by Philip Toynbee.[25]

Muggeridge was also known for his wit and profound writings often at odds with the opinions of the day. "Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream", he liked to quote. He wrote two volumes of an autobiography called Chronicles of Wasted Time (the title is a quotation[26] from Shakespeare's sonnet 106). The first volume (1972) was The Green Stick. The second volume (1973) was The Infernal Grove. A projected third volume, The Right Eye, covering the postwar period, was never completed.

Conversion to Christianity

Agnostic for most of his life, Muggeridge became a Protestant Christian, publishing Jesus Rediscovered in 1969, a collection of essays, articles and sermons on faith, which became a best seller. Jesus: The Man Who Lives followed in 1976, which was a more substantial work describing the gospel in his own words. In A Third Testament, he profiles six spiritual thinkers, whom he called "God's Spies", who influenced his life: Augustine of Hippo, William Blake, Blaise Pascal, Leo Tolstoy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Søren Kierkegaard. He also produced several BBC religious documentaries, including In the Footsteps of St. Paul.[citation needed]

Muggeridge became a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light in 1971 protesting against the commercial exploitation of sex and violence in Britain and advocating the teaching of Christ as the key to recovering moral stability in the nation. He said at the time: "The media today—press, television, and radio—are largely in the hands of those who favour the present Gadarene slide into decadence and Godlessness."[27]

Criticism of Life of Brian

In 1979, along with Mervyn Stockwood, the Bishop of Southwark, Muggeridge appeared on the chat show Friday Night, Saturday Morning to discuss the film Life of Brian with Monty Python members John Cleese and Michael Palin. Although the Python members gave reasons that they believed the film to be neither anti-Christian nor mocking the person of Jesus, both Muggeridge and the bishop insisted that they were being disingenuous and that the film was anti-Christian and blasphemous. Muggeridge further declared their film to be "buffoonery", "tenth-rate", "this miserable little film" and "this little squalid number". Furthermore, Muggeridge stated that there was "nothing in this film that could possibly destroy anybody's genuine faith"; in saying this, the Pythons were quick to point out the futility of criticising it so vitriolically since Muggeridge did not think it was impactful enough to affect anyone. According to Palin, Muggeridge arrived late and so missing the two scenes in which Jesus and Brian were distinguished as different people. The discussion was moderated by Tim Rice, the lyricist for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, which had also generated some controversy in Britain about a decade earlier over its depiction of Jesus.

The comedians later expressed disappointment in Muggeridge, whom all in Monty Python had previously respected as a satirist. Cleese said that his reputation had "plummeted" in his eyes, and Palin commented, "He was just being Muggeridge, preferring to have a very strong contrary opinion as opposed to none at all".[28]

Later years

In 1982, at 79, Muggeridge was received into the Catholic Church after he had rejected Anglicanism,[29] like his wife, Kitty. This was largely under the influence of Mother Teresa about whom he had written a book, Something Beautiful for God, setting out and interpreting her life.[30][31] His last book, Conversion (1988), describes his life as a 20th century pilgrimage, a spiritual journey.

Muggeridge died on 14 December 1990 in a nursing home in Hastings, England, at the age of 87. He had suffered a stroke three years earlier.[citation needed]

Legacy

An eponymous literary society was established on 24 March 2003, the occasion of his centenary, and it publishes a quarterly newsletter, The Gargoyle.[32] The Malcolm Muggeridge Society, based in Britain, is progressively republishing his works. Muggeridge's papers are in the Special Collections at Wheaton College, Illinois.

In November 2008, on the 75th anniversary of the Ukraine famine, both Muggeridge and Gareth Jones were posthumously awarded the Ukrainian Order of Freedom to mark their exceptional services to the country and its people.[33]

In an interview on the Eric Metaxas Radio Show, notable Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias identified Malcolm Muggeridge and G. K. Chesterton as two important influencers in his life.[34]

A week following Muggeridge's death, William F. Buckley wrote a tribute published in The Washington Post.[35] Buckley, in an interview on C-SPAN, described Muggeridge as "a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful man, a great wit and a brilliant, brilliant analyst."[36]: begins at 00:18:53 

Works

Books

  • Three Flats: A Play in Three Acts (1931)
  • Winter in Moscow (1934)ISBN 080280263X
  • Picture Palace (1934, 1987) ISBN 0-297-79039-0
  • La Russie. Vue par Malcolme [sic] Muggeridge. Paris, Imprimerie Pascal, N.d.(c. 1934) 14pp.
  • The Earnest Atheist: A Study of Samuel Butler, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode (1936)
  • The Thirties, 1930–1940, in Great Britain (1940, 1989) ISBN 0-297-79570-8
  • Ciano, Count Galeazzo. Ciano's Diary, 1939–1943 (1947). Edited with in introduction by Muggeridge
  • Affairs of the Heart (1949)
  • Bentley, Nicholas (1957). How Can you Bear to be Human?. London: Andre Deutsch. Muggeridge wrote the introduction.
  • Tread Softly for You Tread on My Jokes (1966). Collection of essays
  • Jesus Rediscovered (1969) ISBN 0-00-621939-X
  • Muggeridge Through the Microphone: BBC Radio and Television (1969). Broadcasts
  • Something Beautiful for God (1971) ISBN 0-00-215769-1 Muggeridge introduced Mother Teresa to the world with this book
  • Paul, Envoy Extraordinary (1972) with Alec Vidler, ISBN 0-00-215644-X
  • Chronicles of Wasted Time. Vol. 1: The Green Stick. New York: Morrow. 1973. ISBN 0688-00191-2. OCLC 283705853. OL 24203423M.
  • Chronicles of Wasted Time. Vol. 2: The Infernal Grove. New York: Morrow. 1974. ISBN 0688-00300-1.
  • Jesus: The Man Who Lives (1975) ISBN 0-00-211388-0
  • A Third Testament: A Modern Pilgrim Explores the Spiritual Wanderings of Augustine, Blake, Pascal, Tolstoy, Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, and Dostoevsky. Little, Brown. 1976.
  • Christ and the Media (1977) ISBN 0-340-22438-X
  • Hesketh Pearson. The Smith of Smiths: Being the Life, Wit and Humour of Sydney Smith (Folio Society, 1977). New introduction by Muggeridge; book first published 1934.
  • In a Valley of This Restless Mind (1978) ISBN 0-00-216337-3
  • Things Past (1979)
  • The End of Christendom (1980) ISBN 0-8028-1837-4
  • Like it Was: The Diaries of Malcolm Muggeridge (1981) ISBN 0-00-216468-X
  • My Life in Pictures. London: Herbert Press. 1987. ISBN 0906969603. OL 2473679M.
  • Chronicles of Wasted Time. Vol. Chronicle 1: The Green Stick. New York: Quill. 1982.
  • Conversion: The Spiritual Journey of a Twentieth Century Pilgrim (1988, 2005) ISBN 1-59752-101-9

Sermons and Lectures

  • Ultimate Concern: 'Am I a Christian?', etc., Cambridge (1967)
  • Living Water, Aberdeen (1968) ISBN 0-7152-0016-X
  • Another King, St Andrews Press (1968)
  • Still I Believe: Nine Talks Broadcast during Lent and Holy Week (1969), ISBN 0-563-08552-5
  • Light in our Darkness, Edinburgh (1969) ISBN 0-7152-0069-0
  • Fundamental Questions: What is Life About?, Cambridge (1970)
  • The Authority and Relevance of the Bible in the Modern World (Bible Society of Australia, 1976)
  • "America Needs a Punch," Esquire (April 1958), 59–60, 60

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1959 I'm All Right Jack T.V. Panel Chairman
1963 Heavens Above! Cleric
1967 Herostratus Radio Presenter Voice

See also

  • Samuel Butler – the subject of Muggeridge's 1936 study.
  • The 2011 television film Holy Flying Circus, broadcast on BBC Four in October 2011, which features a fictional account of Muggeridge and the Pythons' debate on the above programme.
  • Beside the Seaside, 1934 – Bournemouth Contains commissioned article about this seaside resort

References

Notes

  1. ^ Flynn 1994 gives her birth name as "Kathleen", but that appears to be an error, see Krebs 1990 and other online sources.

Citations

  1. ^ GRO Register of Births
  2. ^ a b Muggeridge 1987.
  3. ^ Muggeridge 1973.
  4. ^ a b Ingrams, Richard (1995). Muggeridge: The Biography. HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 9780062513649.
  5. ^ Flynn 1994.
  6. ^ Overman, Dean L. (2008). A Case for the Existence of God. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 131. ISBN 978-0742565531.
  7. ^ Anonymous (i.e. Malcolm Muggeridge), "The Soviet and the Peasantry: An Observer's Notes; II. Hunger in the Ukraine", Manchester Guardian, 27 March 1933, p. 9.
  8. ^ Malcolm Muggeridge. Manchester Guardian. 27 March 1933. Soviet Famine exposure: The Soviet and the Peasantry. II. Hunger in the Ukraine, garethjones.org. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
  9. ^ "BBC World Service – The Documentary, Useful Idiots, Episode 1". BBC. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  10. ^ Haseler 1993, p. 30.
  11. ^ Krebs 1990.
  12. ^ Muggeridge Ancient And Modern, BBC
  13. ^ "No. 34853". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 May 1940. p. 3023.
  14. ^ "No. 35590". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 June 1942. p. 2545.
  15. ^ Holt 2007, p. 332.
  16. ^ Exiles Memorial Center.
  17. ^ Muggeridge, Ancient & Modern BBCTV
  18. ^ The Archive Hour, St Mugg, First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 19 April 2003
  19. ^ "The 1944 Chanel-Muggeridge Interview, Chanel's War".
  20. ^ "E.H. Shepard" 4 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Just Pooh.
  21. ^ Seaton 2015.
  22. ^ Farmer 2015.
  23. ^ Burros 1982.
  24. ^ Craig Brown, 150 Glimpses of the Beatles, pp. 39–40, ISBN 978-0-374-10931-8
  25. ^ "Booker Bulletin announcing Malcolm Muggeridge's resignation as judge". Booker Prize Archive, Special Collections. Oxford Brookes University. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  26. ^ Rees 1980.
  27. ^ "Rallying for love and family life". Glasgow Herald. 12 July 1971.
  28. ^ Cleese and Palin relive the 1979 Life of Brian debate, BBC News
  29. ^ "Malcolm Muggeridge becomes Roman Catholic". UPI. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  30. ^ Schmude, Karl (1 September 2016). "Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who met his match in Mother Teresa". The Catholic Weekly. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  31. ^ . The words. Archived from the original on 29 May 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  32. ^ . Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2007.
  33. ^ "Welsh hero of Ukraine recognized". BBC. 18 November 2009.
  34. ^ Eric Metaxas Radio Show, July 11, 2019 on YouTube
  35. ^ Buckley 1990.
  36. ^ "Happy Days Were Here Again". C-SPAN.org. 24 September 1993. Retrieved 23 October 2019.

Sources

  • Buckley, William F. (24 November 1990). "Malcolm Muggeridge and the Longing for Faith". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  • Burros, Marian (13 October 1982). "In Defense of Vegetarianism: Seven Yeas". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  • Holt, Thadeus (2007). The Deceivers: Allied Military Deception in the Second World War. New York: Skyhorse.
  • Farmer, Ben (24 February 2015). "Malcolm Muggeridge was a serial groper who 'caused much hurt to those close to him', niece admits". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  • Flynn, Nicholas (20 June 1994). "Kitty Muggeridge". The Independent. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  • Haseler, Stephen (1993). The End of the House of Windsor: Birth of a British Republic. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-85043-735-2.
  • Krebs, Albin (15 November 1990). "Malcolm Muggeridge, Writer, Dies at 87". The New York Times. p. B19. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  • Rees, Nigel (1980). The Quote ... Unquote Book of Love, Death and the Universe. ISBN 0-04-827022-9. OL 4115340M.
  • Seaton, Jean (2015). Pinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the nation, 1974–1987. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-84765-916-3.

Further reading

External links

Media offices
Preceded by Deputy Editor of The Daily Telegraph
1950–1953
Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by Rector of the University of Edinburgh
1966–1969
Succeeded by

malcolm, muggeridge, thomas, march, 1903, november, 1990, english, journalist, satirist, father, muggeridge, socialist, politician, early, labour, party, members, parliament, romford, essex, twenties, muggeridge, attracted, communism, went, live, soviet, union. Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge 24 March 1903 14 November 1990 1 2 was an English journalist and satirist His father H T Muggeridge was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party Members of Parliament for Romford in Essex In his twenties Muggeridge was attracted to communism and went to live in the Soviet Union in the 1930s and the experience turned him into an anti communist Malcolm MuggeridgeBornThomas Malcolm Muggeridge 1903 03 24 24 March 1903Sanderstead Surrey EnglandDied14 November 1990 1990 11 14 aged 87 Robertsbridge East Sussex EnglandNationalityBritishAlma materSelwyn College CambridgeOccupationsJournalist author satiristSpouseKatherine Dobbs m 1927 wbr Children4RelativesH T Muggeridge father During World War II he worked for the British government as a soldier and a spy first in East Africa for two years and then in Paris In the aftermath of the war he converted to Christianity under the influence of Hugh Kingsmill and helped to bring Mother Teresa to popular attention in the West He was also a critic of the sexual revolution and of drug use Muggeridge kept detailed diaries for much of his life which were published in 1981 under the title Like It Was The Diaries of Malcolm Muggeridge and he developed them into two volumes of an uncompleted autobiography Chronicles of Wasted Time 3 Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Moscow 3 Return to India 4 Second World War 5 Later life 5 1 Conversion to Christianity 5 2 Criticism of Life of Brian 5 3 Later years 6 Legacy 7 Works 7 1 Books 7 2 Sermons and Lectures 8 Filmography 9 See also 10 References 10 1 Notes 10 2 Citations 10 3 Sources 10 4 Further reading 11 External linksEarly life and career EditMuggeridge s father Henry known as H T Muggeridge served as a Labour Party councillor in the local government of Croydon South London as a founder member of the Fabian Society 2 and as a Labour Member of Parliament for Romford 1929 1931 during Ramsay MacDonald s second Labour government Muggeridge s biographer Richard Ingrams described H T as a small bearded man with a large frame a twinkling eye and a rather bulbous nose which he passed on to his son 4 Muggeridge s mother was Annie Booler The middle of five brothers Muggeridge was born in Sanderstead Surrey His first name Thomas was chosen by H T in honor of his hero Thomas Carlyle 4 He grew up in Croydon and attended Selhurst High School there and then Selwyn College Cambridge for four years Still a student he taught for brief periods in 1920 1922 and 1924 at the John Ruskin Central School Croydon where his father was Chairman of the Governors After graduating in 1924 with a pass degree in natural sciences he went to British India for three years to teach English literature at Union Christian College Aluva Kingdom of Cochin His writing career began during his time in the Kingdom via an exchange of correspondence on war and peace with Mahatma Gandhi with Muggeridge s article on the interactions being published in Young India a local magazine Returning to Britain in 1927 he married Katherine Kitty Dobbs 1903 1994 a the daughter of Rosalind Dobbs a younger sister of Beatrice Webb 5 He worked as a supply teacher before he moved to teach English literature in Egypt six months later There he met Arthur Ransome who was visiting Egypt as a journalist for the Manchester Guardian Ransome recommended Muggeridge to the newspaper editors who offered him his first position in journalism 6 Moscow EditInitially attracted by communism Muggeridge and his wife travelled to Moscow in 1932 He was to be a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian standing in for William Henry Chamberlin who was about to take a leave of absence During Muggeridge s early time in Moscow he was completing a novel Picture Palace loosely based on his experiences and observations at the Manchester Guardian It was completed and submitted to publishers in January 1933 but there was concern by the publishers over potential libel claims and the published book was not distributed Very few first edition copies exist today That setback caused considerable financial difficulties for Muggeridge who was not employed and was paid only for articles that were accepted Increasingly disillusioned by his close observation of communism in practice Muggeridge decided to investigate reports of the famine in Ukraine by travelling there and to the Caucasus without first obtaining the permission of the Soviet authorities The revealing reports that he sent back to The Manchester Guardian in the diplomatic bag thus evading censorship were not fully printed and those that were published on 25 27 and 28 March 1933 were not published under Muggeridge s name 7 8 Meanwhile fellow journalist Gareth Jones who had met Muggeridge in Moscow published his own stories The two accounts helped to confirm the extent of a forced famine which was politically motivated Writing in The New York Times Walter Duranty denied the existence of any famine 9 and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize Jones wrote letters to the Manchester Guardian in support of Muggeridge s articles about the famine Having come into conflict with British newspapers editorial policy of not provoking the authorities in the Soviet Union 10 Muggeridge returned to novel writing He wrote Winter in Moscow 1934 which describes conditions in the socialist utopia and satirised Western journalists uncritical view of the Soviet regime He was later to call Duranty the greatest liar I have met in journalism Later he began a writing partnership with Hugh Kingsmill Muggeridge s politics changed from an independent socialist point of view to a conservative religious stance that was no less critical of society He wrote later I wrote in a mood of anger which I find rather absurd now not so much because the anger was in itself unjustified as because getting angry about human affairs is as ridiculous as losing one s temper when an air flight is delayed Muggeridge 1982 p 274Return to India EditAfter his time in Moscow Muggeridge worked on other newspapers including The Statesman in Calcutta of which he was editor in 1934 to 1936 In his second stint in India he lived by himself in Calcutta having left behind his wife and children in London Between 1930 and 1936 the Muggeridges had three sons and a daughter 11 His office was in the headquarters of the newspaper in Chowringhee Second World War EditWhen war was declared Muggeridge went to Maidstone to join up but was sent away My generation felt they d missed the First War now was the time to make up 12 He was called into the Ministry of Information which he called a most appalling set up and joined the army as a private He joined the Corps of Military Police and was commissioned on the General List in May 1940 13 He transferred to the Intelligence Corps as a lieutenant in June 1942 14 Having spent two years as a Regimental Intelligence Officer in Britain he was by 1942 in MI6 and had been posted to Lourenco Marques the capital of Mozambique as a bogus vice consul called a Special Correspondent by London Controlling Section 15 Before heading out Muggeridge stayed in Portugal for one day He stayed in Estoril at the Pensao Royal on 17 May 1942 16 His mission was to prevent information about Allied convoys off the coast of Africa falling into enemy hands 17 He wrote later that he also attempted suicide citation needed After the Allied occupation of North Africa he was posted to Algiers as liaison officer with the French securite militaire In that capacity he was sent to Paris at the time of the liberation and worked alongside Charles de Gaulle s Free French Forces He had a high regard for de Gaulle and considered him a greater man than Churchill 18 He was warned to expect some anti British feeling in Paris because of the attack on Mers el Kebir In fact Muggeridge speaking on the BBC retrospective programme Muggeridge Ancient amp Modern said that he had encountered no such feeling and indeed had been allowed on occasion to eat and drink for nothing at Maxim s He was assigned to make an initial investigation into P G Wodehouse s five broadcasts from Berlin during the war Though he was prepared to dislike Wodehouse the interview became the start of a lifelong friendship and publishing relationship as well as the subject for several plays He also interviewed Coco Chanel in Paris about the nature of her involvement with the Nazis in Vichy France during the war 19 Muggeridge ended the war as a major having received the Croix de Guerre from the French government for undisclosed reasons Later life EditMuggeridge wrote for the Evening Standard and also for The Daily Telegraph where he was appointed deputy editor in 1950 He kept detailed diaries which provide a vivid picture of the journalistic and political London of the day including regular contact with George Orwell Anthony Powell Graham Greene and Bill Deedes and he comments perceptively on Ian Fleming Guy Burgess and Kim Philby Muggeridge also acted as Washington correspondent for The Daily Telegraph He was editor of Punch magazine from 1953 to 1957 a challenging appointment for one who claimed that there is no occupation more wretched than trying to make the English laugh One of his first acts was to sack the illustrator E H Shepard 20 In 1957 he received public and professional opprobrium for criticism of the British monarchy in a US magazine The Saturday Evening Post The article was given the title Does England Really Need a Queen and its publication was delayed by five months to coincide with the Royal State Visit to Washington DC taking place later that year It was little more than a rehash of views expressed in a 1955 article Royal Soap Opera but its timing caused outrage in the UK and a contract with Beaverbrook newspapers was cancelled His notoriety then propelled him into becoming better known as a broadcaster with regular appearances on the BBC s Panorama and a reputation as a tough interviewer Encounters with Brendan Behan and Salvador Dali cemented his reputation as a fearless critic of modern life Muggeridge was described as having predatory behaviour towards women during his BBC years 21 He was described as a compulsive groper reportedly being nicknamed The Pouncer and as a man fully deserving of the acronym NSIT not safe in taxis While confirming the facts and the suffering inflicted on his family his niece said that he changed his behaviour when he converted to Christianity in the 1960s 22 In the early 1960s Muggeridge became a vegetarian so that he would be free to denounce those horrible factory farms where animals are raised for food 23 He took to frequently denouncing the new sexual laxity of the Swinging Sixties on radio and television He particularly railed against pills and pot birth control pills and cannabis In contrast he met the Beatles before they were famous On 7 June 1961 he flew to Hamburg for an interview with the Stern magazine and afterwards went out on the town and ended up at the Top Ten Club on the Reeperbahn In his diary he described their performance as bashing their instruments and emitting nerveless sounds into microphones However they recognized him from the television and they entered into conversation He acknowledged that their faces were like Renaissance carvings of the saints or Blessed Virgins 24 His book Tread Softly for You Tread on My Jokes 1966 though acerbic in its wit revealed a serious view of life The title is an allusion to the last line of the poem Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats Tread softly because you tread on my dreams In 1967 he preached at Great St Mary s Cambridge and again in 1970 Having been elected Rector of Edinburgh University Muggeridge was goaded citation needed by the editor of The Student Anna Coote to support the call for contraceptive pills to be available at the University Health Centre He used a sermon at St Giles Cathedral in January 1968 to resign the post to protest against the Student Representative Council s views on pot and pills The sermon was published under the title Another King Muggeridge resigned as a judge for the 1971 Booker Prize because of his general lack of sympathy with entries for this year s Booker Prize and was replaced on the panel by Philip Toynbee 25 Muggeridge was also known for his wit and profound writings often at odds with the opinions of the day Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream he liked to quote He wrote two volumes of an autobiography called Chronicles of Wasted Time the title is a quotation 26 from Shakespeare s sonnet 106 The first volume 1972 was The Green Stick The second volume 1973 was The Infernal Grove A projected third volume The Right Eye covering the postwar period was never completed Conversion to Christianity Edit Agnostic for most of his life Muggeridge became a Protestant Christian publishing Jesus Rediscovered in 1969 a collection of essays articles and sermons on faith which became a best seller Jesus The Man Who Lives followed in 1976 which was a more substantial work describing the gospel in his own words In A Third Testament he profiles six spiritual thinkers whom he called God s Spies who influenced his life Augustine of Hippo William Blake Blaise Pascal Leo Tolstoy Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Soren Kierkegaard He also produced several BBC religious documentaries including In the Footsteps of St Paul citation needed Muggeridge became a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light in 1971 protesting against the commercial exploitation of sex and violence in Britain and advocating the teaching of Christ as the key to recovering moral stability in the nation He said at the time The media today press television and radio are largely in the hands of those who favour the present Gadarene slide into decadence and Godlessness 27 Criticism of Life of Brian Edit In 1979 along with Mervyn Stockwood the Bishop of Southwark Muggeridge appeared on the chat show Friday Night Saturday Morning to discuss the film Life of Brian with Monty Python members John Cleese and Michael Palin Although the Python members gave reasons that they believed the film to be neither anti Christian nor mocking the person of Jesus both Muggeridge and the bishop insisted that they were being disingenuous and that the film was anti Christian and blasphemous Muggeridge further declared their film to be buffoonery tenth rate this miserable little film and this little squalid number Furthermore Muggeridge stated that there was nothing in this film that could possibly destroy anybody s genuine faith in saying this the Pythons were quick to point out the futility of criticising it so vitriolically since Muggeridge did not think it was impactful enough to affect anyone According to Palin Muggeridge arrived late and so missing the two scenes in which Jesus and Brian were distinguished as different people The discussion was moderated by Tim Rice the lyricist for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar which had also generated some controversy in Britain about a decade earlier over its depiction of Jesus The comedians later expressed disappointment in Muggeridge whom all in Monty Python had previously respected as a satirist Cleese said that his reputation had plummeted in his eyes and Palin commented He was just being Muggeridge preferring to have a very strong contrary opinion as opposed to none at all 28 Later years Edit In 1982 at 79 Muggeridge was received into the Catholic Church after he had rejected Anglicanism 29 like his wife Kitty This was largely under the influence of Mother Teresa about whom he had written a book Something Beautiful for God setting out and interpreting her life 30 31 His last book Conversion 1988 describes his life as a 20th century pilgrimage a spiritual journey Muggeridge died on 14 December 1990 in a nursing home in Hastings England at the age of 87 He had suffered a stroke three years earlier citation needed Legacy EditAn eponymous literary society was established on 24 March 2003 the occasion of his centenary and it publishes a quarterly newsletter The Gargoyle 32 The Malcolm Muggeridge Society based in Britain is progressively republishing his works Muggeridge s papers are in the Special Collections at Wheaton College Illinois In November 2008 on the 75th anniversary of the Ukraine famine both Muggeridge and Gareth Jones were posthumously awarded the Ukrainian Order of Freedom to mark their exceptional services to the country and its people 33 In an interview on the Eric Metaxas Radio Show notable Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias identified Malcolm Muggeridge and G K Chesterton as two important influencers in his life 34 A week following Muggeridge s death William F Buckley wrote a tribute published in The Washington Post 35 Buckley in an interview on C SPAN described Muggeridge as a wonderful wonderful wonderful man a great wit and a brilliant brilliant analyst 36 begins at 00 18 53 Works EditBooks Edit Three Flats A Play in Three Acts 1931 Winter in Moscow 1934 ISBN 080280263X Picture Palace 1934 1987 ISBN 0 297 79039 0 La Russie Vue par Malcolme sic Muggeridge Paris Imprimerie Pascal N d c 1934 14pp The Earnest Atheist A Study of Samuel Butler London Eyre amp Spottiswoode 1936 The Thirties 1930 1940 in Great Britain 1940 1989 ISBN 0 297 79570 8 Ciano Count Galeazzo Ciano s Diary 1939 1943 1947 Edited with in introduction by Muggeridge Affairs of the Heart 1949 Bentley Nicholas 1957 How Can you Bear to be Human London Andre Deutsch Muggeridge wrote the introduction Tread Softly for You Tread on My Jokes 1966 Collection of essays Jesus Rediscovered 1969 ISBN 0 00 621939 X Muggeridge Through the Microphone BBC Radio and Television 1969 Broadcasts Something Beautiful for God 1971 ISBN 0 00 215769 1 Muggeridge introduced Mother Teresa to the world with this book Paul Envoy Extraordinary 1972 with Alec Vidler ISBN 0 00 215644 X Chronicles of Wasted Time Vol 1 The Green Stick New York Morrow 1973 ISBN 0688 00191 2 OCLC 283705853 OL 24203423M Chronicles of Wasted Time Vol 2 The Infernal Grove New York Morrow 1974 ISBN 0688 00300 1 Jesus The Man Who Lives 1975 ISBN 0 00 211388 0 A Third Testament A Modern Pilgrim Explores the Spiritual Wanderings of Augustine Blake Pascal Tolstoy Bonhoeffer Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky Little Brown 1976 Christ and the Media 1977 ISBN 0 340 22438 X Hesketh Pearson The Smith of Smiths Being the Life Wit and Humour of Sydney Smith Folio Society 1977 New introduction by Muggeridge book first published 1934 In a Valley of This Restless Mind 1978 ISBN 0 00 216337 3 Things Past 1979 The End of Christendom 1980 ISBN 0 8028 1837 4 Like it Was The Diaries of Malcolm Muggeridge 1981 ISBN 0 00 216468 X My Life in Pictures London Herbert Press 1987 ISBN 0906969603 OL 2473679M Chronicles of Wasted Time Vol Chronicle 1 The Green Stick New York Quill 1982 Conversion The Spiritual Journey of a Twentieth Century Pilgrim 1988 2005 ISBN 1 59752 101 9Sermons and Lectures Edit Ultimate Concern Am I a Christian etc Cambridge 1967 Living Water Aberdeen 1968 ISBN 0 7152 0016 X Another King St Andrews Press 1968 Still I Believe Nine Talks Broadcast during Lent and Holy Week 1969 ISBN 0 563 08552 5 Light in our Darkness Edinburgh 1969 ISBN 0 7152 0069 0 Fundamental Questions What is Life About Cambridge 1970 The Authority and Relevance of the Bible in the Modern World Bible Society of Australia 1976 America Needs a Punch Esquire April 1958 59 60 60Filmography EditYear Title Role Notes1959 I m All Right Jack T V Panel Chairman1963 Heavens Above Cleric1967 Herostratus Radio Presenter VoiceSee also EditSamuel Butler the subject of Muggeridge s 1936 study The 2011 television film Holy Flying Circus broadcast on BBC Four in October 2011 which features a fictional account of Muggeridge and the Pythons debate on the above programme Beside the Seaside 1934 Bournemouth Contains commissioned article about this seaside resortReferences EditNotes Edit Flynn 1994 gives her birth name as Kathleen but that appears to be an error see Krebs 1990 and other online sources Citations Edit GRO Register of Births a b Muggeridge 1987 Muggeridge 1973 a b Ingrams Richard 1995 Muggeridge The Biography HarperSanFrancisco ISBN 9780062513649 Flynn 1994 Overman Dean L 2008 A Case for the Existence of God Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers p 131 ISBN 978 0742565531 Anonymous i e Malcolm Muggeridge The Soviet and the Peasantry An Observer s Notes II Hunger in the Ukraine Manchester Guardian 27 March 1933 p 9 Malcolm Muggeridge Manchester Guardian 27 March 1933 Soviet Famine exposure The Soviet and the Peasantry II Hunger in the Ukraine garethjones org Retrieved 24 August 2020 BBC World Service The Documentary Useful Idiots Episode 1 BBC Retrieved 1 July 2020 Haseler 1993 p 30 Krebs 1990 Muggeridge Ancient And Modern BBC No 34853 The London Gazette Supplement 17 May 1940 p 3023 No 35590 The London Gazette Supplement 5 June 1942 p 2545 Holt 2007 p 332 Exiles Memorial Center Muggeridge Ancient amp Modern BBCTV The Archive Hour St Mugg First broadcast BBC Radio 4 19 April 2003 The 1944 Chanel Muggeridge Interview Chanel s War E H Shepard Archived 4 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine Just Pooh Seaton 2015 Farmer 2015 Burros 1982 Craig Brown 150 Glimpses of the Beatles pp 39 40 ISBN 978 0 374 10931 8 Booker Bulletin announcing Malcolm Muggeridge s resignation as judge Booker Prize Archive Special Collections Oxford Brookes University Retrieved 4 June 2020 Rees 1980 Rallying for love and family life Glasgow Herald 12 July 1971 Cleese and Palin relive the 1979 Life of Brian debate BBC News Malcolm Muggeridge becomes Roman Catholic UPI Retrieved 1 July 2020 Schmude Karl 1 September 2016 Malcolm Muggeridge the journalist who met his match in Mother Teresa The Catholic Weekly Retrieved 1 July 2020 Malcolm Muggeridge s spiritual evolution The words Archived from the original on 29 May 2018 Retrieved 1 July 2020 Malcolm Muggeridge Society Archived from the original on 24 October 2013 Retrieved 29 May 2007 Welsh hero of Ukraine recognized BBC 18 November 2009 Eric Metaxas Radio Show July 11 2019 on YouTube Buckley 1990 Happy Days Were Here Again C SPAN org 24 September 1993 Retrieved 23 October 2019 Sources Edit Buckley William F 24 November 1990 Malcolm Muggeridge and the Longing for Faith The Washington Post Retrieved 23 October 2019 Burros Marian 13 October 1982 In Defense of Vegetarianism Seven Yeas The New York Times Retrieved 10 July 2017 Holt Thadeus 2007 The Deceivers Allied Military Deception in the Second World War New York Skyhorse Farmer Ben 24 February 2015 Malcolm Muggeridge was a serial groper who caused much hurt to those close to him niece admits The Daily Telegraph London Flynn Nicholas 20 June 1994 Kitty Muggeridge The Independent Retrieved 23 October 2019 Haseler Stephen 1993 The End of the House of Windsor Birth of a British Republic Bloomsbury Academic ISBN 978 1 85043 735 2 Krebs Albin 15 November 1990 Malcolm Muggeridge Writer Dies at 87 The New York Times p B19 Retrieved 20 August 2017 Rees Nigel 1980 The Quote Unquote Book of Love Death and the Universe ISBN 0 04 827022 9 OL 4115340M Seaton Jean 2015 Pinkoes and Traitors The BBC and the nation 1974 1987 Profile Books ISBN 978 1 84765 916 3 Further reading Edit Ingrams Richard Muggeridge The Biography London HarperCollins 1995 ISBN 0 00 638467 6 Wolfe Gregory Malcolm Muggeridge A Biography London Hodder amp Stoughton 1995 ISBN 0 340 60674 6 Hunter Ian Malcolm Muggeridge A Life London Collins 1980 ISBN 0 241 12048 9 Muggeridge Ancient amp Modern edited by Christopher Ralling and Jane Bywaters with drawings by Trog London BBC 1981 ISBN 0 563 17905 8 This is a revised edition of Muggeridge Through the Microphone 1967 Porter David A Disciple of Christ conversations with Malcolm Muggeridge Basingstoke Marshalls 1983 ISBN 0 551 01059 2 Malcolm Muggeridge s Conversion Story McCrum Robert Wodehouse A Life London New York W W Norton 2004 Kuhne Cecil Malcolm Muggeridge on Faith San Francisco CA Ignatius Press 2006 ISBN 978 1 58617 068 4 Flynn Nicholas Time and Eternity Uncollected Writings 1933 1983 Darton Longman and Todd 2010 ISBN 978 0 232 52808 4 Aeschliman M D Malcolm Muggeridge Marked by Mobility and a Search for Morality https www nationalreview com 2020 10 malcolm muggeridge marked by mobility and a search for morality External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to Malcolm Muggeridge Official website Interviews of Malcolm Muggeridge by William F Buckley on Buckley s Firing Line program Interview by Mike Wallace 19 October 1957 Memories of Muggeridge by Ravi Zacharias Malcolm Muggeridge Papers 1920 1990 Wheaton College Archives amp Special Collections Media officesPreceded byColin Coote Deputy Editor of The Daily Telegraph1950 1953 Succeeded byIvor Bulmer ThomasAcademic officesPreceded byJames Robertson Justice Rector of the University of Edinburgh1966 1969 Succeeded byKenneth Allsop Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Malcolm Muggeridge amp oldid 1124809969, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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