SOURCE: Ingrams, Richard. “Introduction.” In Picture Palace, pp. vii-xiii. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987.

In the following introduction to Muggeridge's Picture Palace, Ingrams reviews events behind the novel's genesis and suppression and finds it valuable more as historical record than novel.

A first edition of [Picture Palace], which came out in 1934, must be one of the rarest books in existence. For although it was published and review copies sent out they were almost immediately withdrawn following legal action by Malcolm Muggeridge's former employees the Manchester Guardian (now the Guardian). [It] has waited for over fifty years to see the light of day again.

Malcolm arrived at the Guardian in August 1930. He was twenty-seven. His previous job had been as a lecturer in English at Cairo University and it was there that he met Arthur Ransome, now best known for his children's stories like Swallows and Amazons, then a regular...