Margaret Thatcher: Life In Writings

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.- M. Thatcher 

This post was written for my collection by Lesley Vos, a writer and essay proofreader of Bid4Papers.com. Lesley enjoys the process of writing itself, and she is always ready to share her writing experience with others.

She is the first and only female Prime Minister in the history of Great Britain. The first Western leader who’s made a bet on reformer Gorbachev. She was famous for her sharp word, and she could precipitate any presumptuous interlocutor correctly. The phrase “The only free cheese is in the mousetrap” belongs to her. She had approved the plan of her own funeral ceremony two years before her death. These are just a few facts about Margaret Thatcher, and today we are trying to sketch a portrait of the “Iron Lady” with her own quotes and the quotes of those people who knew her personally.

Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you. — M. Thatcher

She has deleted the word “compromise” from her vocabulary at her early age. Years later, her conviction and determination have helped Margaret Thatcher make her way to the British political Olympus.

Some impressive facts from life

1. Margaret grew up with her older sister Muriel at the grocery store. Her father, a grocer, had an apartment above the store, next to the railway. The apartment of the future Baroness had no hot water and no toilets.

2. As a child, Maggie was a great pupil. She also played the piano, was engaged in field hockey, swimming, and attended the courses of poetic skills.

3. When she was 9 and received the award for winning the school competition, her teacher said that she just was lucky to get it. Margaret replied: “No, I ‘ve deserved it!”

There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families. — M. Thatcher

4. For her sharp mind and tongue all classmates called her Maggie Toothpick.

5. Thatcher ‘s father, Alfred Roberts, said that Margaret was 99.5% perfect, and the remaining 0.5 % was just a lack of cordiality.

I don’t think there will be a woman prime minister in my lifetime. — M. Thatcher

6. Margaret’s beloved man chose her sister instead. Muriel was the complete opposite to Margaret, and she was more interested in cooking and housekeeping than politics.

7. Margaret had the diploma of a chemist, and she had been even working as a research chemist for several years, developing emulsifiers for an ice cream.

I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it. — M. Thatcher

8. Her marriage with Dennis Thatcher was called nothing but just a marriage of convenience. Thanks to her husband, Margaret was able to get a law education, juridical practice to do, and pay for the election campaign to take a seat in the House of Commons.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.- M. Thatcher

9. In the 20th century, there was only Winston Churchill who led the country longer than Margaret Thatcher.

10. Her enemies nicknamed Margaret “Thatcher-Snatcher”, when she canceled the free distribution of milk to schools, being a Minister of Education.

If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn’t swim. — M. Thatcher

11. It was the USSR newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) who called Thatcher the Iron Lady after her sharp criticism of the Soviet Union. Margaret liked this nickname very much, and her next electioneering had a logo “England needs the Iron Lady”.

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t. — M. Thatcher

12. Her daughter Carol has become a journalist. In her book Below the Parapet (1996) she describes the house of her parents as a refrigerator where there was no love at all.

13. Margaret Thatcher described Gorbachev as a good man with the only thing that spoiled him — his wife.

I like Mr. Gorbachev, we can do business together. — M. Thatcher

14. In 1992 Margaret was hired by the Philip Morris tobacco company as a “geopolitical consultant” with the official salary of $ 250,000 and an annual fee of $ 250,000 to her fund.

15. Since 2002, Thatcher health had begun to deteriorate. She suffered several minor heart attacks, a broken arm, and dementia. In 2011 Thatcher was invited to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, but she did not attend the ceremony due to poor health.

Charles Moore, the personal biographer of the Iron Lady, described her the following way:

She was a difficult person, because there was always a conflict between her ambitions and desire to be strong and popular, and her simple attitude to life and love for her family. Here is a problem: to be a simple woman and to rule the world. Now it is very important for Great Britain to understand the global effect of Margaret Thatcher and appreciate the excellent reputation she has earned globally, and in the former Soviet Union especially. And if we understand this, we will understand her role.

To end this story, there would be no better quote of Margaret to do it with. It perfectly describes her character, sense of humor, and her attitude to all enemies who did not believe in her. She was a great woman and a great politician, who was able to make Britain the powerful European country again:

I’m back… and you knew I was coming. On my way here I passed a cinema with the sign ‘The Mummy Returns’. — M. Thatcher