The challenge facing any biographer of Margaret Thatcher is that
people either love her or hate her - she's not the sort of person
about whom it's possible to express indifference. But a biographer
has to show the complex, human side of her subject, not simply
recount that person's faults or virtues. So there was every chance
that Maddox, a noted biographer who has written lives of Rosalind
Franklin and Nora Joyce among others, was going to offend either
her subject's admirers or detractors - or probably both - with this
biography. Luckily, perhaps, Lady Thatcher isn't a very complicated
personality. The very characteristics that many people admire and
that made her so successful - her ambition, her single-mindedness,
her enormous self-belief - were also the ones that ultimately led
to her downfall. Maddox has wisely chosen to concentrate not on her
subject's political beliefs or the political events that dominated
her premiership (though of course these are discussed) but on her
personal life: her childhood, her relationship with her parents and
family; her marriage and friendships. What emerges is a portrait of
a highly intelligent, focused and capable woman who was determined
to succeed from a very early age. It may be news to no one that she
developed a reputation for bossiness early on in life; more
unexpected is the picture Maddox paints of a woman capable of great
kindness and thoughtfulness towards those she genuinely cared
about. For those who think they already know everything they need
or want to know about Lady Thatcher, this will come as a
surprisingly enjoyable and pacy read. Maddox tells the tale
lightly, and the story is peppered with personal recollections of
those who knew Lady Thatcher as a child and an adult. There are a
few revelations, too; most people won't have known that this
'literal-minded' (to use her own description) woman was a very
talented pianist, or that the great show she made of being an
ordinary housewife wasn't entirely an invention for the media; she
really did continue to cook her husband's meals even while she was
prime minister. Perhaps this isn't the most in-depth biography
Maddox has every written; its tie-in with a TV series suggests it's
aimed at a wider readership than her other biographies would find.
But this shouldn't detract from her achievement in producing an
engaging and likeable book on an individual most of us thought we
knew everything about already. (Kirkus UK)
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. 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.
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