The Downing Street Years

This first volume of Margaret Thatcher's memoirs, which encompasses the whole of her time as Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher is the towering figure of late-twentieth-century British politics. No other prime minister of modern times has sought to change Britain and its place in the world as radically as she did. This is the story of her remarkable life in her own words. This first volume of her memoirs is a riveting first-hand portrait of the events and personalities of her eleven years in power. She recalls the triumphs and the critical moments of her premiership -- the Falklands War, the miners' strike, the Brighton bomb, the Westland Affair and her unprecedented three election victories. Her judgements of the men and women she encountered, whether world statesmen or Cabinet colleagues, are astonishingly frank. She is lavish with praise where it is due; devastating with criticism when it is not. The book reaches a gripping climax with an hour-by-hour description from inside 10 Downing Street of her dramatic final days in office. Margaret Thatcher's compelling account stands as a powerful testament to her extraordinary legacy.

In 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the first woman British Prime Minister. A decade later she became the first premier for 160 years to win three consecutive general elections. In 1990 she resigned her leadership of an increasingly divided and turbulent government. She is the only PM to have given her name to a branch of political philosophy, and arguably the most important figure in postwar British politics.