Malcolm Muggeridge

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Malcolm Muggeridge

taking part in a BBC TV discussion programme
Born March 24, 1903(1903-03-24)
Croydon, Surrey, England
Died November 14, 1990 (aged 87)
Occupation journalist, author, satirist

Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (Croydon, Surrey, England 24 March 1903 [1]–14 November 1990) was a British journalist, author, satirist, media personality, soldier-spy and latterly a Christian convert and writer.

Contents

[edit] Biography

His father, H.T. Muggeridge, was a prominent Labour councillor in Croydon, South London and, for a short time, Member of Parliament for Romford in Ramsay MacDonald's second labour government. His mother was Annie Booler.

Malcolm, one of five boys, attended Selhurst Grammar School and Selwyn College at the University of Cambridge for four years, graduating in 1924 with a pass degree in natural sciences. He then went to India to teach. While still a student he had taught for brief periods in 1920, 1922 and 1924 at the John Ruskin Central School, Croydon, where his father was Chairman of the Governors.

Returning to England in 1927, he married Katherine Dobbs (1903–1994), also called Kathleen or Kitty, whose mother Rosalind Dobbs was a younger sister of Beatrice Webb. He worked as a supply teacher, before moving to teach in Egypt six months later. Here he met Arthur Ransome who was visiting Egypt as a journalist for the Manchester Guardian. Ransome recommended Muggeridge to the editors of the Guardian and he was employed as a journalist for the first time.

[edit] Moscow

Initially attracted by Communism, Muggeridge and his wife travelled to Moscow in 1932, where he was to be a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, standing in for William Chamberlin who was about to take leave of absence. During Muggeridge's early time in Moscow, his main journalistic concentration was writing a novel Picture Palace about his experiences at the Manchester Guardian, completed and submitted to publishers in January 1933. The publishers were concerned with potential libel claims and the book was not published, causing financial difficulties for Muggeridge who was not employed at the time, being paid only for articles he could get accepted. Increasingly disillusioned by communism, Muggeridge decided to investigate reports of the famine in Ukraine, travelling there and to the Caucasus without the permission of the Soviet authorities. Reports he sent back to the Manchester Guardian in the diplomatic bag, thus evading censorship, were not fully printed and were not published under Muggeridge's name. At the same time, rival journalist Gareth Jones who had met Muggeridge in Moscow, published his own stories confirming the extent of the famine. Writing in the New York Times, Walter Duranty denied the existence of any famine. Gareth Jones wrote letters to the Manchester Guardian in support of Muggeridge's articles about the famine.

Having come into conflict with the paper's editorial policy, Muggeridge turned back to novel-writing, starting Winter In Moscow (1934), describing conditions in the 'socialist utopia' and satirizing Western journalists uncritical of the Stalin regime. He was to later call Duranty "the greatest liar I have met in journalism". Later, he began a writing partnership with Hugh Kingsmill. Muggeridge's politics changed as he moved from what was seen as an independent socialist point of view to what was seen by many as a right-wing stance that was no weaker in its criticism of problems in society. Muggeridge's politics defied easy categorization in party-political terms.

[edit] World War II

During the war he was part of the British Secret Intelligence Service operation in Brussels which was headed by Richard Barclay, whom Muggeridge and his colleague Donald McLachlan were accused of bullying. Muggeridge's attempt to claim credit for dismantling the German spy network in Antwerp, in which his critics said he played no part, provoked furious protests from those involved (Richard Gatty and Charles Arnold-Baker), to Barclay. He was later sent to neutral Lourenco Marques in Portuguese East Africa where he is reputed to have been responsible for the capture of a German U Boat, but also spoke later of an attempt at suicide. Shortly after the liberation of Paris by the Allies, Muggeridge 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. This meeting was later to be the subject of a stage play by Roger Milner "Beyond a Joke".

[edit] Post-war period

Muggeridge worked on other papers, including the Calcutta Statesman, Evening Standard, and Daily Telegraph. He was editor of Punch magazine from 1953 to 1957, a challenging appointment for one who claimed to have no sense of humour. In 1957 he received public and professional opprobrium for criticism of the British monarchy in a US magazine, the Saturday Evening News. Given the title "Does England Really Need a Queen?", its publication was delayed by five months to coincide with the Royal State Visit to Washington, D.C. taking place later in the year. While the article was little more than a rehash of views expressed in a 1955 article "Royal Soap Opera", its timing caused outrage back in Britain and he was sacked for a short period from the BBC and a contract with Beaverbrook newspapers was cancelled. His infamy helped propel him to becoming an even better known broadcaster with a reputation as a tough interviewer. But by the 1960s, his spiritual beliefs began to become more significant in his professional career. He became a figure of some ridicule and satire as he took to frequently denouncing the new sexual lassitude of the swinging sixties on radio and television. He particularly railed against "Pills and Pot" - birth control pills and cannabis. He was contemptuous of fellow countrymen the Beatles. In a 1968 article in Esquire magazine, he called them "four vacant youths...dummy figures with tousled heads (and) no talent".

His 1966 book, Tread softly for you tread on my jokes, was published during this time and though acerbic in its wit, revealed a serious view of life. The title is an allusion to the last line of the poem He 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 used a sermon at St. Giles' Cathedral in January 1968, to resign the post in protest against the Student Representative Council's views on "pot and pills". This sermon was published under the title "Another King".

Muggeridge was also known for his wit and profound writings (e.g., "Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream"). He wrote two volumes of an autobiography called Chronicles of Wasted Time. 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 post-war period was never completed.

[edit] Conversion to Christianity

Having professed to being an agnostic for most of his life, he became a Christian, publishing Jesus Rediscovered in 1969, a collection of essays, articles and sermons on faith. It became a best seller. Jesus: The Man Who Lives followed in 1976, a more substantial work describing the gospel in his own words. In A Third Testament, he profiles seven spiritual thinkers, or God's Spies as he called them, who influenced his life: Augustine of Hippo, William Blake, Blaise Pascal, Leo Tolstoy, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Søren Kierkegaard, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. In this period he also produced several important BBC documentaries with a religious theme, including In the Footsteps of St. Paul.

In 1979 he publicly attacked John Cleese and Michael Palin during a television debate concerned with the perceived blasphemy of the film Monty Python's Life of Brian.

[edit] Discovery of Mother Teresa and Subsequent Conversion to Roman Catholicism

In 1982, he surprised many by converting to Roman Catholicism at 79 along with his wife, Kitty. This was largely due to the influence of Mother Teresa. His last book Conversion, published in 1988 and recently republished, describes his life as a 20th century pilgrimage - a spiritual journey.

Muggeridge became known as the "discoverer" of Mother Teresa, whom he first interviewed in London in 1968. He told the world about her deeds through a television documentary filmed in Calcutta called Something Beautiful for God, and through a best-selling book of the same name. The interior of Mother Teresa's "Home of the Dying" was very dark, and the film crew were convinced that interior shots would be impossible. The cinematographer Kenneth MacMillan decided to use a new, untested high-speed Kodak film, in a last-ditch effort. During the first viewing back on London, the crew were all astounded that the interior shots had such amazing detail, and were bathed in a soft, warm light. MacMillan later reported that, upon seeing this, he was "on the verge of giving three cheers for Kodak when Muggeridge interrupted: "It's divine light! It's Mother Teresa. You'll find that it's divine light, old boy". Muggeridge's explanation was that the photographic success was a reflection of the presence of "supernatural luminosity." Muggeridge was "absolutely convinced that this was a miracle and that the light was supernatural. The incident had a great effect on him and for a time he spoke about it endlessly". Soon newspapers from around the world were calling the photographer to ask about the miracle they were told he had witnessed in India. Nothing more was needed to solidify Mother Teresa's awesome status than to have her connected to this supposedly supernatural event [2].

Muggeridge was a controversial figure - known as a drinker, heavy smoker and womaniser in earlier life. However, some of his noted work came as a result of finding faith late in life, eloquently expressed in broadcast and in writing, and fighting energetically on moral issues. He is now affectionately remembered as St. Mugg. From his book, Jesus: The Man Who Lives, he says, "If the greatest of all, Incarnate God, chooses to be the servant of all, who would wish to be the master?". He was a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light of 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.

A Literary Society in his name was established on 24 March 2003, the occasion of his centenary, and publishes a quarterly newsletter called The Gargoyle. The society, based in Britain is progressively republishing Muggeridge's works.

Muggeridge's papers are in the Special Collections at Wheaton College, Illinois, USA.

[edit] Works

[edit] Books

[edit] Sermons

  • 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)
  • America Needs a Punch, Esquire (April 1958), 59–60, 60

[edit] References

  • Ingrams, Richard, Muggeridge : the biography, London : HarperCollins (1995), ISBN 0-00-638467-6
  • Wolfe, Gregory, Malcolm Muggeridge : a biography, London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1995), ISBN 0-340-60674-6
  • Hunter, Ian, Malcolm Muggeridge : a life, London : Collins, (1980), ISBN 0-241-12048-9
  • Muggeridge, ancient & 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, W.W. Norton, London, New York, 2004
  • Kuhne, Cecil. Malcolm Muggeridge on Faith Ignatius Press (2006), ISBN 978-1-58617-068-4

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ GRO Register of Births: JUN 1903 2a 222 CROYDON - Thomas Malcolm MUGGERIDGE
  2. ^ Book Review, "The Missionary Position", Freethought Today, August 1996
  3. ^ Taken from How can you Bear to be Human published in the UK by Deutch
Academic offices
Preceded by
James Robertson Justice		 Rector of the University of Edinburgh
1966 – 1969		 Succeeded by
Kenneth Allsop