num_pages: 501
description: A frank autobiography by "The Times" columnist and ex-politician Matthew Parris. His childhood was spent on a variety of different countries as his engineer father moved jobs; Rhodesia, Cyprus, the Middle East and Jamaica. After Cambridge and Yale, he joined the Conservative central office at roughly the same time (aged 26) he discovered he was gay. He worked for Michael Dobbs, Chris Patten, and Mrs Thatcher (who famously fired him), before entering parliament himself. Part participant, part bystander, Matthew Parris describes what it was like to be so close to the centre and remain an outsider.
language: English
title: Chance Witness: An Outsider's Life in Politics
titlecomplete: Chance Witness: An Outsider's Life in Politics
genres: Biography, Politics, Nonfiction, Humor, Autobiography
ratings_count: 130
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Orwell Prize
publisher: Penguin