List of Illustrations

1. Margaret Robert’s with her father, c . 1927. (© Manchester Daily Express /Science & Society Picture Library)

2. Margaret Roberts’s mother, Beatrice Stephenson, as a young woman. (© Lady Thatcher. Reproduced with permission from www.margaretthatcher.org , the website of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation)

3. Margaret Roberts aged nine, from the class of 1934 at Huntingtower Elementary School. (© Rex Features)

4. Exterior of the Roberts family shop in Grantham. (© Manchester Daily Express / Science & Society Picture Library)

5. Margaret Roberts among the girls who matriculated from Somerville College, Oxford, 1943. (With permission of the Principal and Fellows of Somerville College, © Gillman and Soame)

6. Tony Bray outside the Radcliffe Camera. (By kind permission of Tony Bray)

7. Margaret Roberts at the wedding breakfast of Shirley Ellis, Grantham, 1947. (By kind permission of Shirley Ellis)

8. Tony Bray as an army officer. (By kind permission of Tony Bray)

9. Margaret plays piano in the Bull Inn, Dartford, 1949. (© Hulton Deutsch/Corbis)

10. Margaret the scientist at J. Lyons, 1950. (© Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images)

11. Margaret Roberts’s first election address, Dartford, 1950. (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Conservative Party Archive, Shelfmark: PUB 229/9/5)

12. With Lord Woolton, Westminster, 1951. (© PA/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

13. Margaret as bridesmaid at her sister Muriel’s wedding, April 1950. (By kind permission of Jane Cullen)

14. Robert Henderson, Buckingham Palace, 1957. (By kind permission of Mark McLaren)

15. Margaret Roberts with handbag at a Dartford fête, 1951. (© Ullstein-bild/Topfoto)

16. Letter from Margaret to Muriel, 1951. (By kind permission of Andrew Cullen)

17. Letter from Margaret to Muriel about Denis Thatcher, 1949. (By kind permission of Andrew Cullen)

18. Denis Thatcher and Margaret Roberts after their engagement, 1951. (© Topfoto)

19. Denis and Margaret’s wedding reception, December 1951. (© Alpha Press)

20. Married love, 1957. (By kind permission of Jane Cullen)

21. With infants Mark and Carol, August 1953. (© Daily Mail /Rex Features)

22. Seeing Mark and Carol off to school, 1959. (© Barratt’s/S&G Barratts/EMPICS Archive)

23. Gardening at Dormers, 1959. (© PA/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

24. At home with Mark and Carol, 1961. (© Popperfoto/Getty Images)

25. The new member for Finchley arrives at Westminster, October 1959. (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

26. Mrs Thatcher in front of Big Ben, 1961. (© Popperfoto/Getty Images)

27. With John Boyd-Carpenter, 1961. (© Keystone/Getty Images)

28. ‘Women About the House’, Sunday Times Magazine photo story, June 1964. (© Snowdon/Camera Press)

29. Margaret plays the piano to her family, June 1970. (© Ian Showell/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

30. Mrs Thatcher as Secretary of State for Education, the London American School, 1971. (© Popperfoto/Getty Images)

31. En route to an emergency Cabinet meeting on Nixon’s economic package, August 1971. (© PA/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

32. With a portrait of Ted Heath, 1973. (© Paul Delmar/Getty Images)

33. Mrs, Lord Carrington and Ted Heath at an election press conference, October 1974. (© Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy)

34. ‘My cupboard is not a hoard in any sense of the word.’ ‘Maggie’ the housewife, December 1974. (© Daily Mail /Rex Features)

35. At her hairdresser, Chalmers of Mayfair, January 1975. (© James Gray/Associated Newspapers/Rex Features)

36. After the first ballot of the leadership election, February 1975. (© Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy)

37. With her family after the second ballot, February 1975. (© Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix /Alamy.

38. On The Jimmy Young Show , 1975. (© Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy)

39. Carrying the torch for Europe: Mrs Thatcher campaigning for the ‘Yes’ vote in the 1975 referendum. (© Philippe Achache/Gamma/Camera Press London)

40. The first meeting between Mrs Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, April 1975. (© PA/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

41. Family photo with the Cullens, 1975. (By kind permission of Andrew Cullen)

42. With Peter Morrison, Isle of Islay, August 1978. (By kind permission of Dame Mary Morrison)

43. At a Conservative local government conference, March 1979. (© PA/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

44. Notes for the St Francis of Assisi speech given on the steps of No. 10, 1979. (Copyright © Lady Thatcher. Reproduced with permission from www.margaretthatcher.org , the website of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation)

45. ‘Where there is despair, may we bring hope.’ – Mrs Thatcher enters 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister, May 1979. (© PA/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

46. With Norman St John-Stevas, State Opening of Parliament, May 1979. (© AP/Press Association Images)

47. In the uniform of the UDR, South Armagh, August 1979. (© PA/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

48. ‘Not for turning’ – party conference, October 1980. (© CPA Photos/Topfoto)

49. SAS hostage rescue cartoon, 1980. (Nicholas Garland /Daily Telegraph /British Cartoon Archive)

50. With the Patterson family at home, August 1980. (© PA/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

51. The Brixton riots, April 1981. (© PA/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

52. Listening to Ted Heath at the Party conference, Blackpool, October 1981. (© Bill Cross /Daily Mail /Rex Features)

53. Leaving the Imperial Hotel, January 1982, while Mark Thatcher was missing in North Africa. (© Press Association Images)

72. The ‘Gang of Four’: David Owen, Bill Rodgers, Shirley Williams and Roy Jenkins, 1981. (© Mike Parrison/T/D/Camera Press)

75. With Michael Foot at the Cenotaph, Remembrance Day, November 1981. (© Daily Mail /Solo Syndication)

76. With Geoffrey Howe, 1980 Party Conference. (© Geoff Bruce/Central Press/Getty Images)

77. Sir Keith Joseph at the Conservative Party Conference, 1980. (© Keystone/Getty Images)

78. Norman Tebbit, Conservative Party Conference, 1981. (© Topfoto)