Publisher's Synopsis
Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-90) had a tumultuous life, indeed several lives. He was the devoted son of a socialist father, becoming so disillusioned with the west that he went to live in Soviet Russia in the early 1930s. Then, having exposed some of the worst iniquities of Stalin's regime and also anatomised the bankruptcy of the British Raj, he returned home to reveal the futilities of British politicians in a way no other contemporary journalist was able to do. After experiencing traumatic wartime missions as a soldier and spy that almost led him to take his own life, he became one of television's first celebrities, simultaneously attracting and repelling huge audiences with his inimitable strangulated drawl and professional cynicism. Finally, after decades of heavy drinking, smoking and dedicated sexual over-indulgence, he became Britain's most famous repentant sinner and advocate of Christian regeneration, and was credited with popularizing Mother Theresa. Throughout the whole of his life, however, he was a brilliant communicator, whose 'infinitely exhilarating pursuit of the meaning of things' challenges us afresh today.
