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Matthew Parris
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==Early life and education== Parris was born in [[Johannesburg]], South Africa. The eldest of six children (three brothers and two sisters), he grew up in several British territories: South Africa, Cyprus, Rhodesia, Swaziland and Jamaica, where his father was working as an electrical engineer. His parents ended up working and living in [[Catalonia]], Spain, where Parris later bought a house.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} At the age of 19, Parris drove across Africa to Europe in a [[Morris Oxford]]; the trip was traumatically punctuated when, he reports in his 2002 autobiography, he and his female companion were attacked, and he was forced to witness her rape.<ref>''Chance Witness'', pp. 94β95</ref> He later attributed his embrace of conservatism to an early reading of [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Animal Farm]]'': "An admiration for [the pigs'] intelligence and sense of order dawned in me. I never liked them, but their final triumph taught me that idealism is not enough."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/matthew-parris-animal-farm-by-george-orwell-1945-73zvqkpz9md|title=Matthew Parris: Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945)|first=Matthew|last=Parris|newspaper=[[The Times]]}}</ref> Parris was educated at [[Waterford Kamhlaba]] United World College of Southern Africa, an independent school just outside [[Mbabane]] in Swaziland, Sessions School on the island of Cyprus,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Parris |first=Matthew |date=3 May 2020 |title=The women who really influenced us (by men) |work=[[The Times]] |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/the-women-who-really-influenced-us-by-men-6cmz637mj |access-date=3 May 2022}}</ref> and [[Clare College, Cambridge]], where he gained a [[first class degree]] in law and was a member of the [[Cambridge University Liberal Club]].<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article6987062.ece | archive-url=https://archive.today/20110604220711/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article6987062.ece | url-status=dead | archive-date=4 June 2011 | location=London | work=[[The Times]] | title=Invicta what a terrible choice of poem | first=Matthew | last=Parris | date=14 January 2010}}</ref> He won a [[Paul Mellon]] scholarship and studied [[international relations]] at [[Yale University]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Matthew Parris β DBA Speakers |url=https://www.dbaspeakers.com/matthew-parris/ |access-date=2024-11-20 |language=en-GB}}</ref> At Yale, he failed to receive his [[Master of Arts]] degree, later blaming "too much coffee, Four Roses bourbon, train training to break a five-minute mile and hanging out with interesting people."<ref name="Matthew Parris 2024, p. 16">Matthew Parris, "Confessions of a Political Animal," ''The Times Magazine'', 20 July 2024, p. 16.</ref> It was at the university that he befriended [[Peter Ackroyd]].<ref name="Matthew Parris 2024, p. 16"/>
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