Born 7th August 1949 in Johannesburg, Matthew Parris was educated in Britain and Africa, graduating from Clare College, Cambridge and going on to study International Relations at Yale. Elected Member of Parliament for West Derbyshire in 1979, he gave up his seat in 1986 to become presenter of LWT's Weekend World, a political interview programme. A keen runner, he has competed several times in the London Marathon, achieving two hours thirty-two minutes. Parris was awarded the London Press Club's Edgar Wallace Outstanding Reporter of the Year Award in 1990, the British Press Awards Columnist of the Year for 1991 and 1993 and the `What the Papers Say' Columnist of the Year for 1992. In 1994 he won the national newspaper category in the annual media awards given by the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependency.