Guy Stevens

Help me disinformation ...

Marvel at this excerpt from the paperback edition of Chance Witness (p 192) by Matthew Parris, which gives the impression that Guy Stevens was a member of Procol Harum, or a writer of A Whiter Shade of Pale. He was neither, of course.

The book (pub. 2003) is about 'an outsider's life in politics', and the particular paragraph describes the staff in his office while he worked at 10 Downing Street.

Matthew Parris (b. 1949) was educated in Britain and Africa, graduating from Clare College, Cambridge [co-eval with one of BtP's webmasters, as it happens] before going on to study International Relations at Yale. From 1977 until the 1979 General Election, he was on the staff of Margaret Thatcher's office, and was elected MP for West Derbyshire in 1979.

He gave up his seat in 1986 to become presenter of LWT's Weekend World, a political interview programme. He's also a mountaineer and a runner, parliamentary sketchwriter for The Times and a frequent broadcaster. His various publications are listed here. He has won many awards for his humorous columns but – as far as we know – no awards yet for Rock Journalism.