Malcolm Muggeridge

He married Katherine ‘Kitty’ Dobbs in 1927.

After remaining agnostic for a long time, he converted to Roman Catholicism along with his wife Kitty at the age of 79, in 1982.

He passed away at Roberstbridge, East Sussex, England. Following his death, a number of his works were republished including ‘Chronicles of Wasted Time: An Autobiography’, ‘A Third Testament’ and ‘Conversion: The Spiritual Journey of a 20th Century Pilgrim’.

Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge was born on March 24, 1903, to H.T. Muggeridge and Annie Booler in Sanderstead, South Croydon. He had four other siblings, with whom he was raised in Croydon.

He studied at Selhurst High School and then Selwyn College from where he earned a pass degree in natural sciences in 1924. During this period, he also taught English Literature for a short-term in India and also at the John Ruskin Central School, in Croydon.

He returned to Britain in 1927 and worked as a teacher before he moved to Egypt for six months, where he taught English Literature.

He got his first job in journalism with ‘The Guardian’ on the basis of the recommendation from Arthur Ransome. He then became a columnist for the ‘Manchester Guardian’ in 1932. During this time he also wrote ‘Three flats: a play in three acts’.

In 1934, he penned, ‘Winter in Moscow’, describing circumstances in the communist Shangri-La and mocking the other journalists’ credulous view of Joseph Stalin’s administration. He also worked on another publication titled, ‘Picture Palace’.

He authored, ‘The Earnest Atheist: A study of Samuel Butler’, in 1936, which propelled him to fame. During this time, he was also working on ‘The Thirties’, which was published only four years later.

At the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Corps of Military Police in May 1940. He was shifted to the Intelligence Corps as a lieutenant two years later.

After the war ended, he became a correspondent for the ‘Daily Telegraph’ in 1946. Three years later, he wrote, ‘Affairs of the Heart’. This was followed by a brief period of working as an editor for ‘Punch Magazine’.

‘A Third Testament’, written in 1976 is considered one of his more substantial works. It explored the lives Augustine of Hippo, Blaise Pascal, William Blake, S�ren Kierkegaard, Leo Tolstoy and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This piece of work was a best-seller and was republished in 2002. The novel was also adapted for a miniseries on television with the same title.