https://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=The_Downing_Street_Years&feed=atom&action=historyThe Downing Street Years - Revision history2024-03-28T16:42:34ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.33.2https://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=The_Downing_Street_Years&diff=249862&oldid=prevPatrick Haseldine at 20:34, 20 August 20222022-08-20T20:34:38Z<p></p>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><blockquote>The book has its ''longueurs'', but it is still by far the most comprehensive and readable of modern prime ministerial memoirs: partisan of course, but generally a clear and vivid account of her side of the arguments. Of course it aggrandises her role, exaggerates the degree to which she knew where she was going from the beginning, slides over her moments of doubt and hesitation and diminishes the role of most of her colleagues, aides and advisers. It is a shockingly ungenerous book, shot through with gratuitously withering comments not only about people like [[Michael Heseltine]] and [[Geoffrey Howe]] whom she had some cause to feel bitter about, but also about other inoffensive colleagues who had served her well. Only [[William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw|Willie Whitelaw]], [[Keith Joseph]] and [[Denis Thatcher|Denis]] are beyond criticism, plus of course [[Bernard Ingham]] and [[Charles Powell, Baron Powell of Bayswater|Charles Powell]]. Other officials are barely mentioned. Nevertheless ''The Downing Street Years'' is a good record.<ref>Campbell, pp. 776-777.</ref></blockquote></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><blockquote>The book has its ''longueurs'', but it is still by far the most comprehensive and readable of modern prime ministerial memoirs: partisan of course, but generally a clear and vivid account of her side of the arguments. Of course it aggrandises her role, exaggerates the degree to which she knew where she was going from the beginning, slides over her moments of doubt and hesitation and diminishes the role of most of her colleagues, aides and advisers. It is a shockingly ungenerous book, shot through with gratuitously withering comments not only about people like [[Michael Heseltine]] and [[Geoffrey Howe]] whom she had some cause to feel bitter about, but also about other inoffensive colleagues who had served her well. Only [[William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw|Willie Whitelaw]], [[Keith Joseph]] and [[Denis Thatcher|Denis]] are beyond criticism, plus of course [[Bernard Ingham]] and [[Charles Powell, Baron Powell of Bayswater|Charles Powell]]. Other officials are barely mentioned. Nevertheless ''The Downing Street Years'' is a good record.<ref>Campbell, pp. 776-777.</ref></blockquote></div></td></tr>
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</table>Patrick Haseldinehttps://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=The_Downing_Street_Years&diff=139921&oldid=prevRobin: fix type2018-02-13T12:20:44Z<p>fix type</p>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Downing_Street_Years</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Downing_Street_Years</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>|image=Downing_Street_Years.jpg</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>|image=Downing_Street_Years.jpg</div></td></tr>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>|constitutes=autobiography</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>|constitutes=autobiography</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>}}</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>}}</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>'''''The Downing Street Years''''' is <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">an autobiography by former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] </del>[[Margaret Thatcher]] <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">covering </del>her premiership (1979&ndash;1990). It was accompanied by a four-part BBC television series of the same name.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>'''''The Downing Street Years''''' is [[Margaret Thatcher]]<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">'s autobiography. As the title suggests, it covers </ins>her premiership (1979&ndash;1990). It was accompanied by a four-part <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">[[</ins>BBC<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">]] </ins>television series of the same name.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>In his 2015 book "Lockerbie" (Chapter 7 ''The Lady’s not for Remembrance'') - soon to be made into a feature film by producer/director [[Jim Sheridan]] - [[Dr Jim Swire]] identified a [[Pan Am Flight 103|Lockerbie ''lacuna'']] in Mrs Thatcher's memoirs ''The Downing Street Years'':</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>In his 2015 book "Lockerbie" (Chapter 7 ''The Lady’s not for Remembrance'') - soon to be made into a feature film by producer/director [[Jim Sheridan]] - [[Dr Jim Swire]] identified a [[Pan Am Flight 103|Lockerbie ''lacuna'']] in Mrs Thatcher's memoirs ''The Downing Street Years'':</div></td></tr>
</table>Robinhttps://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=The_Downing_Street_Years&diff=114987&oldid=prevRobin: Text replacement - " terrorism" to " "terrorism""2017-06-12T22:02:51Z<p>Text replacement - " terrorism" to " "terrorism""</p>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>One day after the Lockerbie explosion she walked upon the field where lay the crushed cockpit of ''[[Maid of the Seas]]''. By the Church of Tundergarth she stood wrapped against the Scottish cold, around her across the hills and streets and gardens lay two hundred and seventy bodies and bits of bodies and a broken town. Moving through the debris, she commented:</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>One day after the Lockerbie explosion she walked upon the field where lay the crushed cockpit of ''[[Maid of the Seas]]''. By the Church of Tundergarth she stood wrapped against the Scottish cold, around her across the hills and streets and gardens lay two hundred and seventy bodies and bits of bodies and a broken town. Moving through the debris, she commented:</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>:“One has never seen or ever thought to have seen anything like it. And I don’t think anyone else has, either. I went to the other site where the petrol contained in the wing exploded. Many houses were damaged, it looks very much worse in daylight.”</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>:“One has never seen or ever thought to have seen anything like it. And I don’t think anyone else has, either. I went to the other site where the petrol contained in the wing exploded. Many houses were damaged, it looks very much worse in daylight.”</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Yet that freezing Lockerbie hillside and town strewn with the remains of the dead; our first traumatic memorial service in Dryfesdale Parish church; repeated pleadings by the bereaved for a personal hearing at Downing Street; revelations of international terrorism on a massive scale; German, Iranian, Syrian and Palestinian reputations questioned; the most severe peace-time attack on her nation since the Second World War – all in some mysterious way were expunged from her version of British history. </div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Yet that freezing Lockerbie hillside and town strewn with the remains of the dead; our first traumatic memorial service in Dryfesdale Parish church; repeated pleadings by the bereaved for a personal hearing at Downing Street; revelations of international <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">"</ins>terrorism<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">" </ins>on a massive scale; German, Iranian, Syrian and Palestinian reputations questioned; the most severe peace-time attack on her nation since the Second World War – all in some mysterious way were expunged from her version of British history. </div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Among nine hundred and fourteen pages of tightly written text, hidden deep in the chronology, the reader would find but four words: ‘December 21 - [[Pan Am Flight 103|Lockerbie bombing]]’.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Among nine hundred and fourteen pages of tightly written text, hidden deep in the chronology, the reader would find but four words: ‘December 21 - [[Pan Am Flight 103|Lockerbie bombing]]’.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Such an event demanded an entire chapter of its own. Yet not a word, not a whisper. Could it be that the Lady wished to erase the event from British and world memory? That would have been a naive expectation, and Thatcher, above all things, was not naive. </div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Such an event demanded an entire chapter of its own. Yet not a word, not a whisper. Could it be that the Lady wished to erase the event from British and world memory? That would have been a naive expectation, and Thatcher, above all things, was not naive. </div></td></tr>
</table>Robinhttps://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=The_Downing_Street_Years&diff=63080&oldid=prevRobin at 21:02, 30 June 20152015-06-30T21:02:43Z<p></p>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>|image=Downing_Street_Years.jpg</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>|image=Downing_Street_Years.jpg</div></td></tr>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>}}</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>}}</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>'''''The Downing Street Years''''' is an autobiography by former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] covering her premiership (1979&ndash;1990). It was accompanied by a four-part BBC television series of the same name.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>'''''The Downing Street Years''''' is an autobiography by former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] covering her premiership (1979&ndash;1990). It was accompanied by a four-part BBC television series of the same name.</div></td></tr>
</table>Robinhttps://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=The_Downing_Street_Years&diff=63079&oldid=prevRobin: te2015-06-30T21:01:54Z<p>te</p>
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<tr><td colspan="2"> </td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">}}</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>'''''The Downing Street Years''''' is an autobiography by former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] covering her premiership (1979&ndash;1990). It was accompanied by a four-part BBC television series of the same name.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>'''''The Downing Street Years''''' is an autobiography by former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] covering her premiership (1979&ndash;1990). It was accompanied by a four-part BBC television series of the same name.</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><blockquote>The book has its ''longueurs'', but it is still by far the most comprehensive and readable of modern prime ministerial memoirs: partisan of course, but generally a clear and vivid account of her side of the arguments. Of course it aggrandises her role, exaggerates the degree to which she knew where she was going from the beginning, slides over her moments of doubt and hesitation and diminishes the role of most of her colleagues, aides and advisers. It is a shockingly ungenerous book, shot through with gratuitously withering comments not only about people like [[Michael Heseltine]] and [[Geoffrey Howe]] whom she had some cause to feel bitter about, but also about other inoffensive colleagues who had served her well. Only [[William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw|Willie Whitelaw]], [[Keith Joseph]] and [[Denis Thatcher|Denis]] are beyond criticism, plus of course [[Bernard Ingham]] and [[Charles Powell, Baron Powell of Bayswater|Charles Powell]]. Other officials are barely mentioned. Nevertheless ''The Downing Street Years'' is a good record.<ref>Campbell, pp. 776-777.</ref></blockquote></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><blockquote>The book has its ''longueurs'', but it is still by far the most comprehensive and readable of modern prime ministerial memoirs: partisan of course, but generally a clear and vivid account of her side of the arguments. Of course it aggrandises her role, exaggerates the degree to which she knew where she was going from the beginning, slides over her moments of doubt and hesitation and diminishes the role of most of her colleagues, aides and advisers. It is a shockingly ungenerous book, shot through with gratuitously withering comments not only about people like [[Michael Heseltine]] and [[Geoffrey Howe]] whom she had some cause to feel bitter about, but also about other inoffensive colleagues who had served her well. Only [[William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw|Willie Whitelaw]], [[Keith Joseph]] and [[Denis Thatcher|Denis]] are beyond criticism, plus of course [[Bernard Ingham]] and [[Charles Powell, Baron Powell of Bayswater|Charles Powell]]. Other officials are barely mentioned. Nevertheless ''The Downing Street Years'' is a good record.<ref>Campbell, pp. 776-777.</ref></blockquote></div></td></tr>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==References==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>==References==</div></td></tr>
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</table>Robinhttps://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=The_Downing_Street_Years&diff=59762&oldid=prevPatrick Haseldine at 20:14, 12 April 20152015-04-12T20:14:25Z<p></p>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>'''''The Downing Street Years''''' is an autobiography by former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] covering her premiership (1979&ndash;1990). It was accompanied by a four-part BBC television series of the same name.</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>'''''The Downing Street Years''''' is an autobiography by former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] covering her premiership (1979&ndash;1990). It was accompanied by a four-part BBC television series of the same name.</div></td></tr>
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</table>Patrick Haseldinehttps://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=The_Downing_Street_Years&diff=59761&oldid=prevPatrick Haseldine: Adding images2015-04-12T20:12:24Z<p>Adding images</p>
<a href="https://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=The_Downing_Street_Years&diff=59761&oldid=59743">Show changes</a>Patrick Haseldinehttps://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=The_Downing_Street_Years&diff=59743&oldid=prevPatrick Haseldine: Importing from WP2015-04-12T17:38:27Z<p>Importing from WP</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>[[File:Downing_Street_Years.jpg|400px|right|thumb|[[Pan Am Flight 103|Lockerbie ''lacuna'']]: "I don't write in my autobiography things I don't know about"]]<br />
'''''The Downing Street Years''''' is a [[memoir]] by former [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] covering her [[Premiership of Margaret Thatcher|premiership]] (1979&ndash;1990). It was accompanied by a four-part BBC television series of the same name.<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
Thatcher's close friend [[Woodrow Wyatt]] recounted in his diary on 3 February 1989 a conversation he had with [[Rupert Murdoch]] who wanted Thatcher to write her equivalent of [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'s ''[[Perestroika]]'', explaining [[Thatcherism|her philosophy]] and that [[John O'Sullivan (columnist)|John O'Sullivan]] could do all the "donkey work" for her. Wyatt countered this by stating that the chairman of the publishing house Collins had tried to get him to persuade Thatcher to publish her memoirs with Collins and Thatcher herself seemed favourable to this option.<ref>Woodrow Wyatt, ''The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt. Volume Two'' (Pan, 2000), p. 24.</ref> The next day Wyatt put Murdoch's idea to Thatcher but she claimed she did not have the time.<ref>Wyatt, p. 25.</ref><br />
<br />
On 29 November 1990, the day after Thatcher's resignation as Prime Minister, Wyatt told her of Murdoch's suggestion of O'Sullivan as a helper, to which Thatcher responded: "What a wonderful idea. That would be marvellous".<ref>Wyatt, p. 410.</ref> On 6 November Thatcher told Wyatt that [[George Weidenfeld]] of publishers [[Weidenfeld and Nicolson]] had approached her about her memoirs but Wyatt warned her off him and advocated doing a deal with Murdoch. Thatcher replied: "I would prefer to do it with Rupert because he has been so wonderful and supportive of me, even if I do it for a little less".<ref>Wyatt, p. 417.</ref> On 11 December Wyatt recorded that Murdoch had visited Thatcher but that she had not made up her mind about what sort of book she would write and that she would not accept an advance on a book she had not started writing. Murdoch said she was the first author who he had heard would not do that.<ref>Wyatt, p. 421.</ref><br />
<br />
On 28 January 1991 Thatcher told Wyatt that she wanted to deal with Murdoch directly and did not really want an agent.<ref>Wyatt, p. 445.</ref> However by 23 March Wyatt was writing that Thatcher "seemed to be all over the shop now with her book" and he said to Murdoch that he thought she was going to do a deal with him but "Now she is apparently putting out tenders to publishers and agents". Murdoch replied: "Yes, it's [[Mark Thatcher]], the son, who has taken charge of her affairs and she is doing everything he tells her. He has even got a [[Robert Maxwell|Maxwell]] publisher (Macmillan of New York) on the list. When people talked about getting three to four million for her memoirs, Mark replied that he could get more than double that, eight to ten million. Good luck to him if he can but I don't think he will".<ref>Wyatt, p. 483.</ref> On 26 April Wyatt was writing that Mark Thatcher "has fouled everything up with people who might help her write it and publishers and all the rest of it".<ref>Wyatt, p. 502.</ref> On 9 May Wyatt was still despondent: "I am desperately worried about her. I feel that Mark has mucked up her chances of a quick, high-priced sale for her memoirs".<ref>Wyatt, p. 511.</ref><br />
<br />
Mark Thatcher openly talked of getting eight, ten or even twenty million for his mother's memoirs, which was more than Murdoch was willing to pay. In his dealing's with Murdoch's rival Robert Maxwell, Mark Thatcher apparently had a one million fee for himself. On 21 April 1991 Murdoch used the front page of ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' to denounce his interference.<ref>John Campbell, ''Margaret Thatcher, Volume II: The Iron Lady'' (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 756.</ref> Thatcher was indignant and said to Wyatt: "How can Rupert do this to me?"<ref>Wyatt, p. 501.</ref> Murdoch told Wyatt later that day: "None of her friends dare tell her what a dreadful mess Mark is making of her affairs".<ref>Wyatt, p. 501.</ref><br />
<br />
However in June the Maxwell deal fell through and a week after this Mrs Thatcher signed to Marvin Josephson, an American agent, who quickly accepted a £3.5 million deal with HarperCollins for two books to be published in 1993 and 1995. The publishing world believed that Mark Thatcher had got the worst of both worlds by demanding too much at first and then losing the prime moment by dithering in the negotiations while the value of the memoirs declined.<ref>Campbell, p. 756.</ref><br />
<br />
Thatcher had eighteen months to write the book covering her premiership. She hired a previous director of the [[Conservative Research Department]], [[Robin Harris (author)|Robin Harris]], to do most of the writing, the Oxford academic Christopher Collins to do the research and O'Sullivan to help polish the drafts. Just like with her speeches, Thatcher would "edit, criticise and exhaustively rewrite the drafts" until she was happy.<ref>Campbell, p. 756.</ref><br />
<br />
==Reception==<br />
<br />
''The Downing Street Years'' were published on 18 October 1993, timed to coincide with the Conservative party conference. It was serialised in ''The Sunday Times'' on the Sunday after the conference closed. There were rumours the book would not be helpful to her successor, [[John Major]], and these were confirmed when the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' leaked her views that Major had "swallowed...the slogans of the European lobby...intellectually...[he] was drifting with the tide". The editor of ''[[The Times]]'', [[Simon Jenkins]], denounced her criticisms of Major.<ref>Campbell, p. 776.</ref> However at the conference Thatcher tried hard to be loyal to Major and she was even seen greeting [[Michael Heseltine]]. After Major made a speech saying he was going "[[Back to Basics (campaign)|back to basics]]", Thatcher praised him for returning to "the true path of Conservatism".<br />
<br />
Thatcher was interviewed with [[David Frost]] on [[Breakfast with Frost]] about her memoirs<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYDr2ahg4eE</ref> and she promoted her book with radio and television interviews, book signings, a question and answer session at the Barbican chaired by [[Jeffrey Archer]] and a four-part BBC television series.<ref>Campbell, p. 776.</ref><br />
<br />
[[Geoffrey Howe]] reviewed the book in the ''[[Financial Times]]'', [[Nigel Lawson]] in the ''[[Evening Standard]]'', [[Douglas Hurd]] in ''[[The Spectator]]'', [[Norman Tebbit]] in the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' and [[Bernard Ingham]] in the ''[[Daily Express]]''.<br />
<br />
One of her biographers, [[John Campbell (biographer)|John Campbell]], wrote of the book:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>The book has its ''longueurs'', but it is still by far the most comprehensive and readable of modern prime ministerial memoirs: partisan of course, but generally a clear and vivid account of her side of the arguments. Of course it aggrandises her role, exaggerates the degree to which she knew where she was going from the beginning, slides over her moments of doubt and hesitation and diminishes the role of most of her colleagues, aides and advisers. It is a shockingly ungenerous book, shot through with gratuitously withering comments not only about people like [[Michael Heseltine]] and [[Geoffrey Howe]] whom she had some cause to feel bitter about, but also about other inoffensive colleagues who had served her well. Only [[William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw|Willie Whitelaw]], [[Keith Joseph]] and [[Denis Thatcher|Denis]] are beyond criticism, plus of course [[Bernard Ingham]] and [[Charles Powell, Baron Powell of Bayswater|Charles Powell]]. Other officials are barely mentioned. Nevertheless ''The Downing Street Years'' is a good record.<ref>Campbell, pp. 776-777.</ref></blockquote><br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<br />
*John Campbell, ''Margaret Thatcher, Volume II: The Iron Lady'' (Jonathan Cape, 2003).<br />
*Woodrow Wyatt, ''The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt. Volume Two'' (Pan, 2000).<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[[R. W. Johnson]], [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n23/rw-johnson/schadenfreude Schadenfreude], ''London Review of Books'', Vol. 15 No. 23 · 2 December 1993, pp.&nbsp;3–6.<br />
*[[Linda Colley]], [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n24/linda-colley/let-them-cut-grass Let them cut grass], ''London Review of Books'', Vol. 15 No. 24 · 16 December 1993, pp.&nbsp;7–8.<br />
*[http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/52741-1/Margaret+Thatcher.aspx ''Booknotes'' interview with Thatcher on ''The Downing Street Years'', December 5, 1993.]<br />
<br />
{{PageCredit<br />
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|date=12 April 2015<br />
}}</div>Patrick Haseldine