Philip Ziegler

Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, by Charles Moore, and Not for Turning, by Robin Harris – review

It is a measure of Lady Thatcher’s standing that her death has been followed not only by the mealy-mouthed compliments from political opponents which are normally forthcoming on such occasions but also by robust denunciations. Nobody would have sung ‘Ding, dong, the Wizard is dead!’ after the deaths of Jim Callaghan, John Major or Alec Douglas-Home. Even the more controversial Harold Wilson got a bland send-off in his obituaries. Ted Heath was asked by a journalist whether it was true that, when he heard of Margaret Thatcher’s eviction from the party leadership, he had exclaimed ‘Rejoice! Rejoice!’. No, he replied, after some deliberation. ‘What I said was “Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!” ’ Only the fear lest, wherever he was, she might be rejoining him, would have stopped him indulging in four resounding ‘Rejoices!’ when the news came of her death.

People cared about Margaret Thatcher; even if they did not know her personally they felt passionately about her, whether for or against. This poses problems for biographers. They have got to reflect the intensity of feeling that their subject inspired yet not succumb to it themselves; they must be dispassionate about the passion. On the whole Charles Moore and Robin Harris manage this well and contrive also to be commendably balanced when it comes to politics. As a distinguished former editor of the Daily Telegraph, Moore’s views, it must be assumed, are somewhat to the right of centre. Harris was for long involved with the Conservative Research Department. Both these books are patently written by authors who share most of the views of their subject. But neither is partisan; left-wing readers will be able to read these books without their blood boiling at the one-sided nature of the presentation.

Moore devotes 859 pages to the first 57 years of his subject’s life; Harris takes only 493 considerably smaller pages to cover all 87 years.

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