Murray Sayle traveled the world in search of stories, tramping through the Bolivian jungle in pursuit of Che Guevara, chartering a light aircraft to follow yachtsman Francis Chichester on the first solo nonstop circumnavigation of the globe; staking out a Moscow post office to interview British double agent Kim Philby after his defection to the Soviet Union; and popping up in murderous hot spots from Vietnam to Pakistan and the Middle East.
The son of a railway executive, Sayle was born in a suburb of Sydney. He attended the University of Sydney, said the London Independent, but spent so much time on the student magazine “that he missed 90 percent of his lectures and was excluded from taking finals.” In 1952, he followed a girlfriend to London, where he published a tabloid exposé of a sex trafficking ring for The People. “All you needed to be a journalist, he liked to quip, was a little literary ability and rat-like cunning.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.