Maggie - The First Lady: The woman behind the title

Description

Who is Margaret Thatcher? Her influence on politics is well documented - not least by Lady Thatcher herself. This book takes a different angle, presenting the personal story of the woman who has been described as "the most significant Englishwoman since Elizabeth I". Combining research undertaken by the production company Brook Lapping for the ITV series "Maggie" with her own analysis, Brenda Maddox traces the life of the grocer's daughter from Grantham who became the most successful Conservative Prime Minister of the 20th century. Unprecedented access to people who have known her throughout her life - some of whom have never spoken before - enables the author to paint a fully rounded portrait of a woman who is still both vilified and adored. What kind of person was she that she could overcome her background, the snobbery of Oxford University and then of the Conservative Party? Brenda Maddox shows how the Iron Lady created herself, with the strong assistance of both parents and her husband. Through the eyes of her contemporaries, we begin to understand this extraordinary woman, whose shadow still falls across British life.

Brenda Maddox is an award-winning biographer whose work has been translated into ten languages. NORA: A BIOGRAPHY OF NORA JOYCE won the Los Angeles Times Biography Award, the Silver PEN Award, the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and was shortlisted for the National Book Award. Her life of D.H. Lawrence won the Whitbread Biography Award and GEORGE'S GHOSTS, on the married life of W.B. Yeats, was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.

Elegantly written...what makes Brenda Maddox's biography so compelling is the interweaving of the personal and political. Perhaps the most rounded profile yet of this unique woman. - Birmingham Post There are new insights...Maddox paints a vivid picture of the very different world of a provincial town in the 1930s. Equally vivid is the account of Thatcher's first attempt to enter parliament at the 1950 general election. - Financial Times The story of Alderman Roberts's daughter may hardly be new but Maddox tells it with pace and verve...(she) is good, too, on Thatcher's Oxford career. This is a racily paced tale of what is essentially the private side of a public career. - Anthony Howard, The Sunday Times A good read. Its descriptions of the affection between Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis and of the support he gave her are accurate and sympathetic. - Norman Tebbit, Evening Standard