MARGARET THATCHER
Margaret Thatcher was the UK's first (and, to date, only) woman Prime Minister. Born Margaret Roberts, a grocer's daughter from Grantham, she read Chemistry at Oxford and was first elected to Parliament in 1959 as MP for Finchley. She became Conservative Party Leader in 1975 and Prime Minister for the first of her three successive terms in 1979. Dubbed the Iron Lady by a Russian newspaper she was one of the few politicians to have a doctrine named after her. Thatcherism involved radical policies such as the reduction of government control over the economy, the privatisation of nationalised industries and reform of trade union laws, all of which polarised opinions. After her controversial endorsement of the poll tax she was deposed as Tory leader in 1990.
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Charles Moore is a former editor of The Spectator, The Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph. He is currently a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator. He is the official biographer of Margaret Thatcher, having known her, interviewed her and had access to much previously unknown material about her. Volume One was published in 2013, with Volume Two expected in October |
