Chance Witness: An Outsider's Life in Politics (Paperback)

Anyone who has read anything by Matthew Parris, and particularly his much-missed parliamentary sketches in The Times, will know that he has no need of justifying himself to us; his humility, though admirable and genuine, is belied by the scale of his achievement.

Nobody has written more brilliantly about politics since George Orwell. Parris and the author of 'Animal Farm' are, you might think, a pretty unlikely pairing. Despite his travelling and global perspective, Parris does not apparently have the radicalism of Orwell; Orwell was not so skilful an observer of personality as Parris. What they share is what Orwell once called, in a poem, 'the crystal spirit' - humanity, honesty and a hatred of humbug, all manifesting themselves in prose of luminous simplicity.

Yet Parris agrees with Peter Ackroyd's assessment: that he, Parris, has 'no talent', and has thrived only as a commentator, a 'chance witness'. He laments, in his final chapter, that he has never done anything original: 'If in my life I had been able to think up just one important thing...then I could be happy in anonymity'. The originality of his work is open to debate - that of his life is not. If this lack of originality he claims has helped to produce some of the stuff he describes in this book, I say hurrah for that.

Near the end, he moves from apologia to apology, regretting that he finds little room to describe his travels, his family history beyond childhood, and, most intriguingly, his pet llamas. I regret this too. I only hope he makes amends as soon as possible with a second volume.

He has been through many peripheral roles - working in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as a correspondent clerk for Mrs Thatcher when she was Leader of the Opposition, a backbench MP and a parliamentary speechwriter. He delivers opinions, views and observances with wit and panache. He is a good story teller, and his brushes with those in authority are genuinely amusing.

It is also a very touching book - we learn how hard he found it cruising on Clapham Common, a very moving moment. Some may not approve of the way that he has laid his life bare, but he feels genuinely proud of the small advances he feels he contributed to for equality for homosexuals.

He has also reprinted many amusing sketches. Having read a collection of his sketches (Off-Message), I felt the extracts worked better in this book because he provided the context, and we also receive a commentary from him as well.

My one criticism of the book would concern his ruminations on his failure to enter into any form of office, not understanding why he was never able to climb to greasy pole, though he does provide an explanation for his failure. I also grew tired towards the end about how he kept banging on about how insignificant he was in the events he witnessed, and indeed he felt it had applied to his whole life. Had this been the case people would not have wanted to read the book: the fact that people have show that people respect him and enjoy his writing. He came across as a man seeking approval slightly too much.

That aside, it is a very interesting and enjoyable read. He has a real wit, and I found the book to be good fun, accurately observed and moving in all the right places.