Thatcher and Sons

Nov 8, 2024 5:02 AM

Author:Simon Jenkins

Thatcher and Sons

The history of Britain in the last thirty years, under both Conservative and Labour governments, has been dominated by one figure – Margaret Thatcher. Her election marked a decisive break with the past and her premiership transformed not just her country, but the nature of democratic leadership. Simon Jenkins analyses this revolution from its beginnings in the turmoil of the 1970s through the social and economic changes of the 1980s. Was Thatcherism a mere medicine for an ailing economy or a complete political philosophy? And did it eventually fall victim to the dogmatism and control which made it possible? This is the story of the events, personalities, defeats and victories which will be familiar to all those who lived through them, but seen through a new lens. It is also an argument about how Thatcher’s legacy has continued down to the present. Not just John Major, but Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are her heirs and acolytes. And as the Conservative party reinvents itself as a viable political force once again, is the age of Thatcher finally over?

Reviews

As Simon Jenkins argues in this splendidly readable and provocative account of the last thirty years, we still live in the Lady's shadow

—— Dominic Sandbrook

Strathern has done his research thoroughly, and tells a good story well

—— Sunday Telegraph

A great overview of one family's centuries-long role in changing the face of Europe

—— Irish Independent

A great little book about the British obsession with the climate, it's full of fruitful parcels of meteorological lore.

—— Conde Nast Traveller

... The writing possesses an affable charm and Fort has an appealing layman's enthusiasm for the subject.

—— Financial Times Magazine

An entertaining but rigorous antidote to the fast-and-loose-with-the-truth approach.

—— Radio Times

Wonderfully engaging...Tinniswood has brought the Verneys to life in robustly vivid style

—— Guardian

A wonderful group portrait of an eccentric and ill-starred dynasty. Expertly handling the humorous words and unwise deeds of several generations of Verneys, Adrian Tinniswood breathes life into the turbulent history of an entire century

—— Ross King, author of Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling and Brunelleschi's Dome

Adrian Tinniswood's The Verneys takes us on a fascinating grand tour through a world turned upside down. It is an intimate, engaging, and richly rewarding book, showing the seventeenth century in all its splendor and brutality

—— David King, author of When the World Came to Town and Finding Atlantis

How eloquently Mak rails against the alliance of consumerism and bureaucracy! ... He has a great eye for telling detail... Only a powerful, humane and serious mind could give coherence to mass detail which, however arresting piece by piece, would otherwise soon become wearying... as much a journey around Geert Mak's head as it is a journey around Europe

—— Guardian

Fascinating

—— David V Barrett , Independent

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