Chance Witness - An Outsider's Life in Politics (CD)

Following Cambridge and Yale and a short spell in the Foreign Office, Matthew Parris decided that rather than become a spy, he would try his luck as a diesel-fitter. He was turned down.

Plan B was to stand as a Conservative Party candidate and here he was successful, beating Peter Lilley and Michael Howard for the West Derbyshire constituency. He spent seven years in the House of Commons, under the watchful eye of Mrs Thatcher, which ended in calamity. During this time, however, he was a sharp observer of his colleagues and in this surprising, eccentric story, he tells of politics and politicians as well as his extraordinary childhood and early life.