Malcolm Muggeridge

Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990) was a British journalist, author, satirist, media personality, soldier-spy and late in life, a Christian apologist. His father, was a prominent Labour councillor in Croydon, South London and, for a short time, Member of Parliament for Romford. His mother was Annie Booler.

Malcolm attended Cambridge University, graduating in 1924 with a degree in natural sciences. He then went to India to teach. Returning to teach also in England in 1927, he married Katherine Dobbs. Six months later he traveled to Egypt to teach there. There he met the journalist Arthur Ransome who recommended Muggeridge to his editors, and he was employed as a journalist for the first time.

Muggeridge accepted an assignment to Russia because of an attraction to communism, but eventually he became disillusioned with it and swung to the opposite end of the political spectrum. Muggeridge's politics defied easy categorization in terms of a political party.

During World War II, Muggeridge joined the British Secret Intelligence Service operation in Brussels and later in Portuguese East Africa. After the war ended, Muggeridge worked for 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 notoriety for his criticism of the British monarchy. Yet the uproar helped to propel him to becoming even better known as a broadcaster with a reputation as a tough interviewer.

But by the 1960s, his spiritual beliefs began to claim a larger role 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 marijuana).

His 1966 book, Tread Softly for You Tread on My Jokes, though acerbic in its wit, revealed a serious view of life. In 1967, Muggeridge 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 as Another King.

Muggeridge is recognized as the "discoverer" of Mother Teresa, whom he first interviewed in 1968. He told the world about her deeds through a T.V. documentary called "Something Beautiful for God," along with the best-selling book of the same name. He was known for his wit and profound writings.

Muggeridge wrote two volumes of an autobiography he called Chronicles of Wasted Time. The first volume was The Green Stick (1972) and the second The Infernal Grove (1973). He never completed a projected third volume, The Right Eye.

Having professed to being an agnostic for most of his life, Muggeridge became a Christian, publishing in 1969 Jesus Rediscovered, 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 religious themes, 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."

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

Muggeridge was a controversial figure, known as a drinker, heavy smoker, and womaniser in earlier life. However, some of his noted work came late in life as a result of finding faith, eloquently expressed in broadcast and in writing, and fighting energetically on moral issues. He is now affectionately remembered as St. Mugg.

Chronicles of Wasted Time: vol. 1: The Green Stick (Audiobook on cassette)

Chronicles of Wasted Time: vol. 2: The Infernal Grove (Audiobook on cassette)

The End of Christendom (Audiobook on cassette)

Jesus Rediscovered (Audiobook on cassette)