Best biography of margaret thatcher

Early life and career

Margaret Thatcher was born in the small Lincolnshire market town of Grantham in October 1925, the second daughter of Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. Her parents owned and ran a grocery. They were strong Methodists and Thatcher’s early life was shaped by the church and the gemenskap of its small congregation: she grew up in a strong and watchful community, a place of duty, beställning, unsparing honesty, and charitable giving. Her father was a lay preacher and during her childhood became a prominent figure in the town, serving for many years on the finance committee of the council and holding the office of mayor in 1945/46. He had been brought up a frikostig and though an opponent of the local Labour Party, he never publicly described han själv as a Conservative. He read widely and seriously, acquiring a great store of political knowledge: his daughter later joked that while Chancellors of the Exchequer and Treasury officials often talked to her about the Bank of England’s “f

•

Margaret Thatcher was the longest-serving Prime Minister of the twentieth century and one of the most influential figures of the postwar era. Volume One of Moore's authorized biography gives unparalleled insight into her early life, especially through her extensive correspondence with her sister, and recreates brilliantly the atmosphere of British politics as she was making her way, taking us up to the zenith of her power: victory in the Falklands.

Based on unrestricted access to all Lady Thatcher's papers, unpublished interviews with her and all her major colleagues, this is the indispensable portrait of a towering figure of our times.

About Charles Moore

Charles Moore joined the staff of the Daily Telegraph in 1979, and as a political columnist in the 1980s covered several years of Mrs Thatcher's first and second governments. He was Editor of the Spectator 1984-1990; Editor of the Sunday Telegraph 1992-1995; and Editor of the Daily Telegraph 1995-2003, for

•

The best books on Margaret Thatcher

Thank you for creating this reading list of the best books on Margaret Thatcher. You knew her quite well; was there anything remarkable about meeting Thatcher in the flesh that you couldn’t have understood from seeing her as a public figure on television, or discussed in the press?

No, not really. What you saw was what you got. The one thing that everybody says, which is true, is that she was very good with what the Labour party patronisingly calls ‘ordinary people’. She came to our house for Sunday lunch on about half a dozen occasions from the late 1990s until she became too infirm. Whenever she came here we would ask two old treasures, Vera and Edna, in from the village to help wait at table and she would always say, ‘Now, the ladies will want their photographs taken with me.’ And she would go into the kitchen. I would obediently follow with a camera. She’d stand by the Aga with Vera and Edna and I’d take a photograph of the three of them.