Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume 2

by Charles Moore

  § This prediction was semi-fulfilled after Mrs Thatcher’s death, when some anti-Thatcher activists held parties and mock-funerals in celebration.

  * When Margaret Thatcher actually did die in 2013, the show went on, with the words unaltered.

  † Nicholas Garland (1935–), educated Slade School of Fine Art; political cartoonist, Daily Telegraph, 1966–86 and 1991–2011; New Statesman, 1971–8; Independent, 1986–91; he also drew regularly for the Spectator, 1979–95.

  * During the defence cuts of the early 1980s, Garland drew Mrs Thatcher wearing a full suit of armour but with her knickers hanging round her ankles. His editor, Bill Deedes, spiked the drawing on grounds of bad taste. (Interview with Nicholas Garland.) Such qualms were rare in newspapers even then, however, and became rarer.

  † Gerald Scarfe (1936–), educated Royal School of Art; political cartoonist, Sunday Times, 1967–; artist, New Yorker, 1993–; also works extensively in TV and film and has had many exhibitions of his art worldwide, including ‘Milk Snatcher, Gerald Scarfe – The Thatcher Drawings’, at the Bowes Museum, 2015.

  ‡ Steve Bell (1951–), educated Slough Grammar School; freelance cartoonist and illustrator since 1977; famous for his ‘IF …’ cartoon strip in the Guardian.

  * Mrs Thatcher, however, did not reciprocate the cartoonists’ interest. Unlike many leading politicians, she did not buy the originals of cartoons about herself from the authors. A rare occasion on which she is known to have attempted this was after the death of Enoch Powell in 1998. Garland drew a cartoon of Mrs Thatcher looking at Powell’s sculpted effigy in the manner of Rembrandt’s Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer. Mrs Thatcher tried to buy the original, but Powell’s widow, Pam, also offered, and Garland decided in favour of Mrs Powell. (Interview with Nicholas Garland.)

  † Norman St John-Stevas (1929–2012), educated Ratcliffe College, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and Christ Church, Oxford (he is thought to have been unique in holding office in both the Oxford and Cambridge Unions); barrister, author (editor of the complete works of Walter Bagehot); Conservative MP for Chelmsford, 1964–87; Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for the Arts, 1979–81; created Lord St John of Fawsley, 1987.

  ‡ Howard Brenton (1942–), educated Chichester High School for Boys and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge; playwright; his numerous plays include Christie in Love (1969), The Romans in Britain (1980) and In Extremis (2006).

  * Edward Bond (1934–), playwright and director; author of numerous plays, among them Saved (1965), which included, famously, a scene featuring the stoning to death of a baby in its pram.

  † Michael Grade (1943–), educated St Dunstan’s College, London; controller, BBC1, 1984–6; director of programmes, BBC TV, 1986–7; chief executive, Channel 4, 1988–97; executive chairman and chief executive, ITV, 2007–9; created Lord Grade of Yarmouth, 2011.

  * Stephen Frears (1941–), educated Gresham’s School, Holt and Trinity College, Cambridge; film director. His films include My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), High Fidelity (2000).

  † Glenda Jackson (1936–), educated West Kirby County Grammar School for Girls; RADA; actress, 1957–92; Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, 1992–2010; for Hampstead and Kilburn, 2010–15. She starred in many films including Women in Love (1971), The Boyfriend (1972), Mary Queen of Scots (1972).

  ‡ In the House of Commons adjournment debate after Mrs Thatcher’s death in 2013, Glenda Jackson would attack Mrs Thatcher, saying that although she had been the first female prime minister, she did not embody her sex – ‘A woman? Not on my terms’ (Hansard, HC Deb 10 April 2013, 560/1650).

  § Caryl Churchill (1938–), educated Trafalgar School, Montreal and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; playwright; her plays include Cloud Nine (1979) and Top Girls (1982).

  * Spitting Image embedded itself so deep in the public consciousness that the present author has often been approached by people who tell him a story about how Mrs Thatcher was asked by a waiter serving the Cabinet what meat she wanted. She answered, ‘A raw steak, please.’ Then the waiter asked, ‘And the vegetables?’ Mrs Thatcher replied, ‘Oh, they’ll have the same as me.’ This is a Spitting Image skit, but people have turned it into a true story in their minds. (As part of the long-running joke about Mrs Thatcher being ‘really’ a man, the waiter in the sketch addresses her as ‘Sir’.)

  * Spitting Image’s creators, Peter Fluck and Roger Law, also commissioned a ceramic ‘Mrs T-pot’ in which the tea poured out of her nose. It did not sell well.

  † Antony Jay (1930–), educated St Paul’s and Magdalene College, Cambridge; freelance writer; BBC producer and editor, 1955–64; editor of the Tonight programme, 1962–3; writer (with Jonathan Lynn) of BBC television series Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, 1980–88; his publications include Management and Machiavelli (1967; 2nd edn 1987); knighted, 1988.

  ‡ Jonathan Lynn (1943–), educated Kingswood School, Bath and Pembroke College, Cambridge; director of numerous plays and films including (film): Nuns on the Run (1990) and My Cousin Vinny (1992); also actor and writer, including (with Antony Jay) of BBC television series Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, 1980–88.

  § Antony Jay had friendly relations with Mrs Thatcher and occasionally advised her on speeches and on the BBC.

  * (Ahmed) Salman Rushdie (1947–), educated Cathedral School, Bombay, Rugby and King’s College, Cambridge; writer; works include Midnight’s Children (1981) and The Satanic Verses (1988), which resulted in Ayatollah Khomeini’s issuing a fatwa in 1989 calling for Rushdie’s death; knighted, 2007.

  * Philip Hensher (1965–), educated Tapton School, Sheffield, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and Jesus College, Cambridge; clerk to the House of Commons, 1990–96; his novels include The Northern Clemency (2008) and Scenes from Early Life (2013).

  * John Wells (1936–98), educated Eastbourne College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford; writer, actor and director; played title role in Anyone for Denis? (as well as writing it, with Richard Ingrams) at Whitehall Theatre, 1981–2.

  † Richard Ingrams (1937–), educated Shrewsbury and University College, Oxford; editor, Private Eye, 1963–86; Oldie, 1992–2014.

  ‡ W. F. (‘Bill’) Deedes (1913–2007), educated Harrow; journalist with Morning Post, 1931–7; Conservative MP for Ashford Division of Kent, 1950–September 1974; parliamentary secretary, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, 1954–5; Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Department, 1955–7; Minister without Portfolio, 1962–4; editor, Daily Telegraph, 1974–86; knighted, 1999; created Lord Deedes, 1986.

  * Kingsley Amis (1922–95), educated City of London School and St John’s College, Oxford; his first novel, Lucky Jim (1955), won the Somerset Maugham Prize; The Old Devils (1986) received the Booker Prize; as well as twenty-four novels, Amis published collections of poetry, short stories and literary criticism; knighted, 1990.

  † Barry Humphries (1934–), Australian comedian, actor, satirist and author; best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.

  ‡ Peter Ackroyd (1949–), educated St Benedict’s School, Ealing, Clare College, Cambridge and Yale University; novelist, biographer and poet; novels include The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde (1983), Hawksmoor (1985); non-fiction includes T. S. Eliot (1984), Thomas More (1998) and London: The Biography (2000).

  § Noël Annan (1916–2000), educated Stowe and King’s College, Cambridge; Provost of King’s College, 1956–66; Vice-Chancellor, University of London, 1978–81; created Lord Annan, 1965.

  ¶ John le Carré (pseudonym of David Cornwell) (1931–), educated Sherborne, Berne University and Lincoln College, Oxford; author of spy novels, including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) and Smiley’s People (1980).

  * There were a few occasions when even some of Mrs Thatcher’s most dedicated foes did admire her. By chance, David Hare and Howard Brenton happened to be in Brighton, writing a play
together, in the week of the 1984 bomb. When they watched her speech on the day that followed the bomb, Brenton said: ‘I don’t approve of her as prime minister, but by God she’s a great tank commander.’ (Interview with Sir David Hare.)

  † Vladimir Bukovsky (1942–), Russian dissident, author and human rights activist; spent a total of twelve years in Soviet prisons, labour camps and so called ‘psychiatric hospitals’ in the 1960s and 1970s before his release and move to the UK.

  ‡ David Eccles (1904–99), educated Winchester and New College, Oxford; Conservative MP for Chippenham, 1943–62; held various ministerial posts in 1950s including Education, 1954–7 and 1959–62; returned to the government as paymaster-general and minister for the arts, 1970–73; trustee, British Museum, 1963–99; chairman, British Library Board, 1973–8; knighted, 1953; created Viscount Eccles, 1964.

  * Professor Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–94), educated Sir John Leman School and Somerville College, Oxford; distinguished chemist, famous for her crystallographic analysis of the structure of molecules and later discovered important information about the structure of penicillin; winner, Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1964; OM, 1965.

  † Allan Bloom (1930–92), educated University of Chicago; American political philosopher, author and translator of works by Rousseau and Plato. His best-known book was The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students (1987); he also wrote the collection of essays Giants and Dwarfs (1990), and Love and Friendship (published posthumously in 1993).

  ‡ George Walden (1939–), educated Latymer Upper School, Jesus College, Cambridge and Moscow University; diplomat, 1967–83; Conservative MP for Buckingham, 1983–97; Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Education and Science, 1985–7.

  * Gilbert Prousch (Italy, 1943–) and George Passmore (England, 1942–) met in 1967 at St Martin’s School of Art in London and since then have worked in collaboration as artists.

  † Claus Moser (1922–2015), born in Berlin to a Jewish family who escaped Nazi Germany to live in England in 1936; educated Frensham Heights School and LSE; statistician; held many senior posts in academia and the Civil Service, including professor of social statistics, LSE, 1961–70; director, Central Statistical Office and head of Government Statistical Service, 1967–78; chairman, Royal Opera House, 1974–87; knighted, 1973; created Lord Moser, 1981.

  ‡ Herbert von Karajan (1908–89), Austrian; principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, 1955–89.

  * Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909–97), educated St Paul’s and Corpus Christi College, Oxford; Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, Oxford, 1957–67; president, British Academy, 1974–8; Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; knighted, 1971.

  * Robert Blake (1916–2003), educated King Edward VI Grammar School, Norwich and Magdalen College, Oxford; Provost, the Queen’s College, Oxford, 1968–87; a pro-vice-chancellor, Oxford University, 1971–87; historian, best known for his biography Disraeli (1966) and for The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill (1970), revised and updated as The Conservative Party from Peel to Thatcher (1985); joint editor, Dictionary of National Biography, 1980–90; created Lord Blake, 1971.

  * Denis Noble (1936–), educated Emanuel School, London and University College London; Burdon Sanderson Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology, Oxford University, 1984–2004; Tutorial Fellow, Balliol College, Oxford, 1963–84; Professorial Fellow, 1984–2004.

  † Peter Pulzer (1929–), educated Surbiton County Grammar School, King’s College, Cambridge and University of London; University Lecturer in Politics, Oxford, 1960–84; Official Student and Tutor in Politics, Christ Church, 1962–84; Gladstone Professor of Government and Public Administration, University of Oxford, 1985–96; Fellow of All Souls College, 1985–96.

  * Geoffrey Warnock, the university’s Vice-Chancellor, was privately reported, by John Patten, who was both an MP and a former Oxford don, to be making ‘every effort’ to get a good turnout for Mrs Thatcher. His wife, Mary Warnock, who later had such harsh things to say about Mrs Thatcher to the Sunday Telegraph, was ‘doing a lot in the women’s colleges’ for Mrs Thatcher’s cause, Patten relayed to Downing Street. (Patten to Alison, 28 January 1985, CAC: THCR 2/1/5/142.)

  † Peregrine Worsthorne (1923–), educated Stowe, Peterhouse, Cambridge and Magdalen College, Oxford; columnist; associate editor, Sunday Telegraph, 1976–86; editor, 1986–9; knighted, 1991.

  * Professor John Vincent (1937–), educated Bedales and Christ’s College, Cambridge; Professor of Modern History, University of Bristol, 1970–84; Professor of History, 1984–2002. He was a columnist for the Sun and The Times in the 1980s.

  * By way of commiseration, the friendly Oxford don Michael Gearin-Tosh sent Mrs Thatcher a gift of a rare edition of Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. She told him that ‘The book has long been a favourite of mine – but it had not previously struck me that Swift was such a perceptive economist, as well as such a devastating satirist. I agree with everything you say in your letter about the economic and industrial facts of life – if only there were more realists among the clouds of Laputa!’ (Thatcher to Gearin-Tosh, 14 February 1985, CAC: THCR 3/2/159.)

  † Her revenge came later. In 1997, when the time came to place her papers in an archive, she gave them to Cambridge.

  * It was customary for foreign diplomatic receptions to take place in the Great Hall, as well as those given by the Chinese.

  * At the time of writing, Carol has never married, but has a long-term partner, Marco Grass.

  † If she felt her own children had been wronged, she was utterly unforgiving, although she tried also to appear to act professionally. In 1986, for example, Max Hastings, the new editor of the Daily Telegraph, decided to sack Carol from his features staff ‘with the other dead wood’ (Correspondence with Sir Max Hastings). ‘Naively, I thought the PM would regard this as a normal piece of newspaper business, but she went potty, told CB [Conrad Black, the paper’s proprietor] that I had behaved disgracefully etc … She never spoke to me again.’ At the same time, however, Mrs Thatcher made sure to keep her relations with the Telegraph Group in good repair, courting Conrad Black and Andrew Knight, the then chief executive, who recalled her behaviour over the sacking of Carol as ‘magnanimous’ (Interview with Andrew Knight).

  * Carol, her real daughter, was generous about this, and welcomed the fact that she was ‘mightily fond of “her girls” ’ (Interview with Carol Thatcher).

  * Cicely Saunders (1918–2005), educated Roedean School and St Anne’s College, Oxford; trained as a nurse, a medical social worker and a physician; pioneer of the modern hospice movement; founded St Christopher’s Hospice, 1967; created dame, 1980; OM, 1989.

  † Some other accounts of the Dulwich house story maintain that Robin Butler wanted Mrs Thatcher to buy the house, but there is no documentary evidence of this.

  * Gerald Bowden (1935–), educated Battersea Grammar School and Magdalen College, Oxford; Conservative MP for Dulwich, 1983–92.

  * Despite describing the golf course as ‘lousy’, Denis did play there, joining a group of like-minded retired members called the ‘Wednesday Old Gentlemen’, whose politically incorrect acronym amused them.

  * Crawfie noted, however, that Mrs Thatcher was not superstitious. She did not mind, for example, that her birthday was on the 13th of the month, and she chose to marry on the 13th (of December). (Interview with Cynthia Crawford.)

  † Mrs Thatcher’s personal assistants always travelled with Carmen rollers for her, just in case, as once happened in Thailand, the local service went badly wrong (Interview with Amanda Ponsonby).

  * Once, at a dinner in Washington, the liberal film director Mike Nichols had sat next to Mrs Thatcher, and found her monologue about the evils of the Soviet Union punishing. After it, she came and sat with him again, sticking with the subject. Desperate, Nichols said, ‘My friend John le Carré says you are a very sexy woman.’ ‘Well,’ replied Mrs Thatcher
, ‘I’m not,’ and resumed her diatribe. (Interview with Sir David Hare.)

  † Those who knew Mrs Thatcher well disagreed about how good her own taste was. Carla Powell used to make a face and pull an imaginary lavatory chain when discussing it, but others thought she had a good eye for quality and an understanding of allure. Perhaps it does not matter what she would have done unaided: the point was that she acted on good advice.

  * Hugo Young (1938–2003), educated Ampleforth and Balliol College, Oxford; journalist, Sunday Times, 1965–84 (joint deputy editor, 1981–4); political columnist, Guardian, 1984–2003.

  * Glenys Kinnock (1944–), educated Holyhead Comprehensive School and University College of Wales, Cardiff; Labour MEP for South Wales East, 1994–9; for Wales, 1999–2009; created Lady Kinnock of Holyhead, 2009.

  * Raymond Seitz (1940–), executive assistant to Secretary George Shultz, Washington, DC, 1982–4; Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy, London, 1984–9; Ambassador to the UK, 1991–4.