Author:Paul Johnson
Anti-Thatcher tirade: The cast of “Boys From The Blackstuff’ with its writer, Alan Bleasdale (©Bob Thomas/Getty Images)Such is the richness of the documentation of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership that Charles Moore has been obliged to renounce his original intention of describing it in two volumes, and written three instead. Volume Two now deals with the central period, between 1983 and 1987, in both of which years she won smashing electoral victories, her party being returned with majorities of more than 100 seats. The book, of some 800 pages, is so full of facts, many of them new, as to pose problems for reviewers. I have decided, therefore, to deal chiefly with one aspect: Mrs Thatcher and the intellectuals, about which this volume is particularly instructive.
