Maggie - Hardcover

Brenda Maddox

3.7

23 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340825456 ISBN 13: 9780340825457

Publisher: Hodder Hb, 2003

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Who is Margaret Thatcher? Her influence on politics is well documented - not least by Lady Thatcher herself. This book takes a different angle, presenting the personal story of the woman who has been described as "the most significant Englishwoman since Elizabeth I". Combining research undertaken by the production company Brook Lapping for the ITV series "Maggie" with her own analysis, Brenda Maddox traces the life of the grocer's daughter from Grantham who became the most successful Conservative Prime Minister of the 20th century. Unprecedented access to people who have known her throughout her life - some of whom have never spoken before - enables the author to paint a fully rounded portrait of a woman who is still both vilified and adored. What kind of person was she that she could overcome her background, the snobbery of Oxford University and then of the Conservative Party? Brenda Maddox shows how the Iron Lady created herself, with the strong assistance of both parents and her husband. Through the eyes of her contemporaries, we begin to understand this extraordinary woman, whose shadow still falls across British life.

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About the Author:

Brenda Madox is an award-winning biographer whose work has been translated into ten languages. Nora: A Biography Of Nora Joyce won the Los Angeles Times Biography Award, the Silver Pen Award, the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and was shortlisted for the National Book Award. Her life of D.H. Lawrence won the Whitbread Biography Award in 1974 and George's Ghosts, on the married life of W.B. Yeats, was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 1998.

Review:

"- 'Engaging, insightful, and extremely well-written... as compelling, as complicated and as emotionally intense as it should be.... Excellent' - Sunday Telegraph - 'Maddox's biography of Lawrence, as one might expect from her biography of Nora Joyce, is lively and well-researched, and she has many valuable readings, particularly of short stories that are off the beaten track...' - Sunday Times - 'Maddox's analysis of this story is superb.... It is rare to find a critic who is as objective as Maddox... She has done full justice to her subject, and has eloquently reminded us that biography, at its best is a noble art.' - Washington Post - 'It is readable, crisp, humane, sophisticated and sufficient... Maddox writes with clarity and decisiveness.' - Spectator - Praise for GEORGE'S GHOSTS: 'Few poets can have attracted as many biographers, but Brenda Maddox's brilliant account of Yeats is an essential text. It has clarity and elegance and is an unfailingly entertaining read.' - Observer

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