Shallow end
Sir: Richard Ingrains' biography of Mal- colm Muggeridge has yet to make it to the bookstores here. So I cannot tell if Alan Watkins in his review (Books, 14 October) is being fair when he suggests the book skips over the history of Muggeridge's work for M16. If so this is a pity.
When I was our Africa Correspondent I stayed on many occasions at the magnifi- cent Polana Hotel in Maputo. The hotel has diary-like records going back many decades, including the period of the second world war when Mozambique, being a Por- tuguese colony, was neutral territory. For some time Muggeridge was the M16 man in what was then Lorenzo Marques and seems to have spent a considerable portion of that posting propping up one end of the Polana bar while his German counterpart held down the other. Muggeridge was apparent- ly subject to dark depressions at this time and one day decided to end it all. The huge bay of Lorenzo Marques is immediately below the cliff-top hotel and Muggeridge strode off from the bar to the beach with the intention of allowing the sea to take him. Without hesitation he walked into the water, but what he had either forgotten or did not know is that the bay is very shallow. Muggeridge walked from shore for about an hour, but the water was still only up to his knees. The hotel records do not tell us whether having despaired of life Mug- geridge then despaired of death. Or per- haps he concluded that his Maker had long- term plans for him. At any rate, Mug- geridge turned back, trudged again through the shallows and returned to the bar for another drink.
Jonathan Manthorpe
Asia Correspondent, Asia Bureau, Fiat 3101, 76 Kennedy Road, Hong Kong
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