Murray Sayle

Murray Sayle (1926-2010) was an Australian journalist, novelist, and adventurer. A native of Sydney, Australia, Sayle moved to London in 1952. He was a foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times and covered wars in Vietnam, Pakistan nd the Middle East; accompanied an expedition on its climb of Mount Everest; sailed solo across the Atlantic Ocean; was the first reporter to interview double agent Kim Philby after his defection to Russia; and trekked through the Bolivian jungle in search for Che Guevara. After moving to Japan in 1975, Sayle wrote for various publications, principally the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. He returned to Australia in 2004 and was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Sydney in 2007. In the same year, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen's birthday honors.