40 Facts About Malcolm Muggeridge

Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist and satirist.

The middle of five brothers, Malcolm Muggeridge was born in Sanderstead, Surrey.

Malcolm Muggeridge grew up in Croydon and attended Selhurst High School there and then Selwyn College, Cambridge, for four years.

Malcolm Muggeridge's 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.

Malcolm Muggeridge worked as a supply teacher before he moved to teach English literature in Egypt six months later.

Malcolm Muggeridge was to be a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian standing in for William Henry Chamberlin, who was about to take a leave of absence.

That setback caused considerable financial difficulties for Malcolm Muggeridge, who was not employed and was paid only for articles that were accepted.

Increasingly disillusioned by his close observation of communism in practice, Malcolm 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.

Malcolm Muggeridge wrote Winter in Moscow, which describes conditions in the "socialist utopia" and satirised Western journalists' uncritical view of the Soviet regime.

Malcolm Muggeridge was later to call Duranty "the greatest liar I have met in journalism".

Malcolm Muggeridge's politics changed from an independent socialist point of view to a conservative religious stance.

Malcolm Muggeridge's office was in the headquarters of the newspaper in Chowringhee.

Malcolm Muggeridge joined the Corps of Military Police and was commissioned on the General List in May 1940.

Malcolm Muggeridge transferred to the Intelligence Corps as a lieutenant in June 1942.

Malcolm Muggeridge stayed in Estoril at the Pensao Royal on 17 May 1942.

Malcolm Muggeridge's mission was to prevent information about Allied convoys off the coast of Africa falling into enemy hands.

Malcolm Muggeridge had a high regard for de Gaulle and considered him a greater man than Churchill.

Malcolm Muggeridge was warned to expect some anti-British feeling in Paris because of the attack on Mers-el-Kebir.

Malcolm Muggeridge was assigned to make an initial investigation into P G Wodehouse's five broadcasts from Berlin during the war.

Malcolm Muggeridge interviewed Coco Chanel in Paris about the nature of her involvement with the Nazis in Vichy France during the war.

Malcolm Muggeridge ended the war as a major, having received the Croix de Guerre from the French government for undisclosed reasons.

Malcolm Muggeridge wrote for the Evening Standard and for The Daily Telegraph where he was appointed deputy editor in 1950.

Malcolm Muggeridge 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.

Malcolm Muggeridge 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".

Malcolm Muggeridge was described as having predatory behaviour towards women during his BBC years.

Malcolm Muggeridge's niece confirmed the facts, while reflecting on the suffering inflicted on his family and saying that he changed his behaviour when he converted to Christianity in the 1960s.

Malcolm Muggeridge acknowledged that "their faces [were] like Renaissance carvings of the saints or Blessed Virgins".

Malcolm Muggeridge 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".

Malcolm 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.

Malcolm Muggeridge was known for his wit and profound writings often at odds with the opinions of the day.

Malcolm Muggeridge wrote two volumes of an autobiography called Chronicles of Wasted Time.

Agnostic for most of his life, Malcolm Muggeridge became a Protestant Christian, publishing Jesus Rediscovered in 1969, a collection of essays, articles and sermons on faith, which became a best seller.

Malcolm Muggeridge produced several BBC religious documentaries, including In the Footsteps of St Paul.

In 1979, along with Mervyn Stockwood, the Bishop of Southwark, Malcolm 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.

Furthermore, Malcolm 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 Malcolm Muggeridge did not think it was impactful enough to affect anyone.

Cleese said that his reputation had "plummeted" in his eyes, and Palin commented, "He was just being Malcolm Muggeridge, preferring to have a very strong contrary opinion as opposed to none at all".

In 1982, at 79, Malcolm Muggeridge was received into the Catholic Church after he had rejected Anglicanism, like his wife, Kitty.

Malcolm Muggeridge died on 14 December 1990 in a nursing home in Hastings, England, at the age of 87.

The Malcolm Muggeridge Society, based in Britain, is progressively republishing his works.

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