Matthew Parris

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For the medieval chronicler and artist, see Matthew Paris

Book about L'Avenc
Book about L'Avenc

Matthew Parris (born August 7, 1949 in Johannesburg) is a journalist and former Conservative politician in the United Kingdom.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Parris is the eldest of six children and grew up in several countries where his British father was working as an electrical engineer (South Africa, Cyprus, Rhodesia, Swaziland and Jamaica). His mother was an actress. At the age of 19 in East Africa, he was witness to rape when he and a girl were tied up by a knifeman. He drove across the continent in a Morris Oxford. After obtaining a first class degree in law from Clare College, Cambridge, he studied international relations at Yale University. He was offered a job as a spy, but worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for two years. In 1976 he left this secure career because he did not like its formality, and because he wanted to become a Member of Parliament. He first applied to become an apprentice London Transport bus fitter, but was rejected and joined the Conservative Research Department. He moved on to become correspondence secretary to Margaret Thatcher. He was awarded an RSPCA medal (presented by Margaret Thatcher) for jumping into the Thames and rescuing a dog.

[edit] Parliamentary career

He served as the Conservative MP for the rural parliamentary constituency of West Derbyshire from 1979 until 1986. Competing prospective candidates for the seat included Peter Lilley and Michael Howard, later Conservative leader. The start of his career was overshadowed by a letter which he had written to a council tenant on behalf of Margaret Thatcher, which became featured in Labour Party election publications. As an MP he voiced his support for gay rights. Parris eventually left politics to pursue a career in journalism.

[edit] Radio and television work

Parris is also a radio and television presenter and pundit. He is the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Great Lives biography series. As an MP he took part in a documentary requiring him to live for a week on the social security payments awarded by the Conservative government for which he was an MP. The experiment came to an embarrassing end when he ran out of money for the electricity meter. He left Parliament specifically to take over as host of ITV's Weekend World. This ran for two years. Parris was criticised for being too nice, and being unable to ask 'killer' questions. He has also appeared on Have I Got News For You.

[edit] Writing and journalism

His success has been as a parliamentary reporter, due to his knowledge and understanding of politicians and ability to express this well. He is regarded as one of the leading critics of Tony Blair, and is thought of by many as one of the most powerful commentators on Fleet Street. He worked as parliamentary sketch writer for The Times newspaper from 1988 to 2001. His writing has largely concerned current events rather than a historical account of his own time in politics. He has weekly columns in The Times and The Spectator magazine.

In 2004 Parris became Writer of the Year in Granada Television's What the Papers Say Awards. In part, the reward was for reporting on elections in Iraq and Afghanistan. His previous accolades include Columnist of the Year in the 1991 and 1993 British Press Awards, and in the What the Papers Say Awards 1992. In 1990 he received the London Press Club's Edgar Wallace Outstanding Reporter of the Year Award.

Parris has suggested that Tony Blair has a deep flaw in his personality which makes him unsuitable for the role of Prime Minister. On March 16, 2006 he wrote-

"I believe Tony Blair is an out-and-out rascal, terminally untrustworthy and close to being unhinged. I said from the start that there was something wrong in his head, and each passing year convinces me more strongly that this man is a pathological confidence-trickster. To the extent that he even believes what he says, he is delusional. To the extent that he does not, he is an actor whose first invention — himself — has been his only interesting role."

He has written books on politics and travel. He has made several expeditions abroad, including to Mount Kilimanjaro in 1967 and 1989, Zaire 1973, the Sahara in 1978 and to Peru and Bolivia. In 1990 he published Inca-Kola, about his travels in Peru. In 1991, a compilation of his pieces in The Times appeared, entitled So Far, So Good. Since then there have been further compilations. Scorn, a book he has edited of quotations about curses, jibes and general invective, was published in October 1994.

L'Avenc
L'Avenc

He spent the Antarctic winter of 2000 on the French possession of Grande Terre (or "Desolation Island", part of the Kerguelen Archipelago in the Indian Ocean) with a few dozen over-winterers. One of them was fatally shot in a tragic accident, an event about which he writes movingly.

In 2005 Parris published "A Castle in Spain" about his families' project to refurbish a derelict 16th Century mansion, L'Avenc, in Catalunya - close to the foothills of the Pyrenees. Following the renovation this house (see picture) is now one of his homes.

[edit] Personal life

Parris announced he was gay in one of his weekly newspaper columns. He has stated that he was once beaten up on Clapham Common, which he had habitually visited late at night when an MP. This left him with a quiet determination to fight for gay rights. In a live interview on Newsnight during the Ron Davies scandal of 1998, he famously told interviewer Jeremy Paxman that there were two gay members of the then current Labour Cabinet, one being Peter Mandelson. He has stated that there are between thirty and sixty unannounced gay members of the UK parliament.

In July 2006, in a list compiled by the Independent on Sunday, Parris was voted the 73rd most influential gay man in the United Kingdom.

In August 2006, Parris entered into a civil partnership with his long-term partner, Julian Glover, a political journalist (not to be confused with the actor of the same name). At the time of their partnership, they had been together for eleven years.

Parris has also been a keen marathon runner, taking part in the London event several times, with a fastest time of 2:32:57.

He owns homes in Spain, Derbyshire, and the Docklands of East London.

[edit] Bibliography

  • A Castle in Spain (Viking, 2005) ISBN 0-670-91547-5
  • Chance Witness: An Outsider's Life in Politics (Viking, 2002) ISBN 0-670-89440-0
  • The King's English (Oxford Language Classics Series) Henry Fowler, Frank Fowler, Matthew Parris (introduction) (Oxford University Press, 2002) ISBN 0-19-860507-2
  • Off Message: New Labour, New Sketches (Robson Books, 2001) ISBN 1-86105-479-3
  • I Wish I Hadn't Said That: The Experts Speak - and Get It Wrong! Matthew Parris (foreword), Christopher Cerf, Victor Navasky (HarperCollins, 2000) ISBN 0-00-653149-0
  • Against the Law: The Classic Account of a Homosexual in 1950s Britain Peter Wildeblood, Matthew Parris (introduction) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999) ISBN 0-297-64382-7
  • The Great Unfrocked: Two Thousand Years of Church Scandal (Robson, 1998) ISBN 1-86105-129-8
  • Scorn with Extra Bile Matthew Parris (editor) (Penguin Books, 1998) ISBN 0-14-027780-3
  • I Couldn't Possibly Comment: More Sketches from the Commons (Robson Books, 1997) ISBN 1-86105-095-X
  • Read My Lips: A Treasury of Things Politicians Wish They Hadn't Said (Parkwest Publications, 1997) ISBN 1-86105-043-7
  • Great Parliamentary Scandals: Four Centuries of Calumny, Smear and Innuendo (Robson Books, 1995) ISBN 0-86051-957-0
  • Scorn with Added Vitriol (Hamish Hamilton, 1995) ISBN 0-241-13587-7
  • Scorn: A Bucketful of Discourtesy, Disparagement, Invective, Ridicule, Impudence, Contumely, Derision, Hate, Affront, Disdain, Bile, Taunts, Curses and Jibes (Hamish Hamilton, 1994) ISBN 0-241-13384-X
  • Look Behind You!: Sketches and Follies from the Commons (Robson, 1993) ISBN 0-86051-874-4
  • So Far So Good...: Selected Pieces (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991) ISBN 0-297-81215-7
  • Inca Kola: A Traveller's Tale of Peru (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1990) ISBN 0-297-81075-8
  • Coping with the Soviet Union Peter Blaker, Julian Critchley, Matthew Parris (Conservative Political Centre Bookshop, 1977) ISBN 0-85070-599-1

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
James Scott-Hopkins		 Member of Parliament for Derbyshire West
1979–1986		 Succeeded by
Patrick McLoughlin
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