Journalist, born in Croydon, S Greater London, UK. A lecturer at the Egyptian University in Cairo (192730), he joined the Manchester Guardian (19303), was assistant editor of the Calcutta Statesman (19345), and joined the editorial staff of the Evening Standard. Serving with the Intelligence Corps during World War 2, he received the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre. Resuming his journalistic career, he worked with the Daily Telegraph (194652), and was editor of Punch (19537). He contributed regularly to the television programme Panorama (195360), and had his own series Appointment With ... (19601) and Let Me Speak (19645). Later television appearances include the autobiographical Muggeridge Ancient and Modern (1981) and his introduction of Mother Teresa to the world in Something Beautiful for God (1971). He wrote Chronicle of Wasted Time (1982), and other books. A controversial rector of Edinburgh University (19678), he resigned over student liberalism and promiscuity. He characterized his life as a spiritual journey towards a greater understanding of faith, and in 1982 became a Roman Catholic.
Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (March 24, 1903–November 14, 1990) was a British journalist, author, satirist, media personality, soldier, spy and Christian scholar.
Biography
Early life
His father, H.T. Muggeridge, was a Labour councillor in Croydon, South London and, for a short time, a Member of Parliament in Ramsey MacDonald's second labour government.
Malcolm attended Selwyn College at Cambridge University for four years, graduating in 1924 with a pass degree in natural sciences.
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. Ransome recommended Muggeridge to the editors of the Guardian and he was employed as a journalist for the first time.
Moscow
Muggeridge and his wife travelled to Moscow in 1932, where Malcolm 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. Unfortunately, the publishers were concerned with potential libel claims and the book was not published causing some financial embarrassment to Muggeridge who was not actually employed at the time, being paid only for articles which he could get accepted. Reports he sent back to the Guardian in the diplomatic bag, thus evading censorship, were not fully printed and were not published under Muggeridge's name. While Gareth wrote letters to the Guardian in support of Muggeridge's uncredited articles about the famine, Muggeridge wrote nothing in public in support of Gareth. Having come directly into conflict with the paper's editorial policy, Muggeridge turned back to novel writing, starting Winter In Moscow (1934), describing real conditions in the socialist utopia and satirizing Western journalists uncritical of the Stalin regime. 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.
World War II
During the war he was part of the British Secret Intelligence Service operation in Brussels which was headed by Richard Barclay, a weak man whom Muggeridge and his colleague Donald McLachlan bullied. Muggeridge's vainglorious attempt to claim credit for the dismantling of the German spy network in Antwerp, in which he played no part, provoked furious protests from those involved (Richard Gatty and Charles Arnold-Baker), to Barclay.
Post-war period
He worked on other papers, including the Calcutta Statesman, Evening Standard, and Daily Telegraph. His 1966 book, Tread softly for you tread on my jokes, was published during this time of spiritual search, and though acerbic in its wit, also revealed a serious view of life.
Muggeridge became known as the "discoverer" of Mother Teresa, whom he first interviewed in London in 1968.
Conversion to Christianity
Having professed publicly to being an agnostic for most of his life, he found his Christian faith, publishing Jesus Rediscovered in 1969 and Jesus: The Man Who Lives in 1976. 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.
Subsequent conversion to Roman Catholicism
In 1982, he surprised many people by converting to Roman Catholicism at the age of 79 along with his wife, Kitty.
Muggeridge was a controversial figure - known as a drinker and womaniser in early life.
A Literary Society in his name was established on March 24th 2003, the occasion of his centenary, and publishes a quarterly newsletter called The Gargoyle
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