The Iron Lady: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher

by Hugo Young

Margaret Thatcher is one of the most remarkable political phenomena of the 20th century. She is also a figure of profound paradox. The Iron Lady follows Mrs. Thatcher's political formation from her beginning as a small-town alderman's daughter to her emergence as the senior statesman of the Western world.

Genres: Biography, Politics, History, Nonfiction

569 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Hugo John Smelter Young was a British journalist and columnist and senior political commentator at The Guardian.

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The interest of this interim biography, written as Margaret Thatcher was half way through her third ministry but before her fall from power in 1990, lies in its contemporaneous assessment of her at the height of her powers by a fair-minded member of the centre-left establishment.

Hugo Young was the classic old-style Guardianista and was to become the Chairman of The Scott Trust which owned The Guardian and other news media. As such, he represented precisely the cultural 'noblesse oblige' of the British elite that Thatcher tended to sweep aside.

However, he was also a fine and honest journalist, again of the old school, so his approach to political biography remains fact-based, unemotional and fair-minded about someone who could excite visceral emotions for and against.

Although now outdated, it stands as a source if only because Young was in a position to interview actors in the drama off and on the record. Although journalists can never know the true heart of things, he was still able to get as close to the heart of British politics as any of the breed might.

As a narrative it speaks for itself. He tends to leaves his judgements to the very last chapter which is wise because then both parties - reader and author - are working from the same information and the former is then more likely to accept the conclusions of the latter.

Looked back at from over 30 years, the Thatcher phenomenon remains interesting even if its appropriation and misuse by a third rate politician in 2022 was close to bringing down the Tory Party and, economically, the nation. This cannot be laid at the door of 'Maggie'.

Young reminds us that Thatcher (like Blair later) never really had the majority of the nation behind her, merely her Party and the House of Commons and (he was not to know) not even they in 1990. Her remarkable power was down to personality but also the peculiarities of our Constitution.

Because he is of the Establishment, Young never really gets into the question of how liberal democracies end up with powerful, if temporary and disposable, leaderships who are not ever truly answerable to the people but only to relatively small numbers of allied politicians.

The question is what did she do with that power. The similarities with Blair lie not only in the nature of her power and its relationship to the Constitution but in just how much of it was 'spun' and short term. The instabilities of liberal democracy are what should strike us most.

That she was instrumental in using her power in changing Britain has to be admitted. There were significant transfers of wealth from the State to selected elements in the middle classes that have never been reversed. The welfare system was sufficiently degraded never to fully recover,

There was no doubt that 'enterprise' transformed the way that the British economy was managed, a process compounded by New Labour but only to the extent that public debt was merely to become debt for all, reliance increased shifted to 'services' and the whole underpinned by migratory labour.

Thatcher cannot be blamed for what was done with her legacy by a regime of spin doctors and intellectual lightweights but it was her legacy that they expanded upon to which was added an intensification of pseudo-nationalistic guff while effectively selling out to the US and EU.

It was probably true that Britain could not continue as a badly run corporatist mish-mash whose economic practices were still beholden to war recovery and unravelling a dodgy empire. It is certainly true that Labour and the one nation Tories had no serious alternatives that were viable.

Thatcher filled a gap in which the British public were fed up with the decline and conflict, happy to be bought off with a twentieth century version of the dissolution of the monasteries and uninterested in the abstract shibboleths of urban liberals.

And whatever she was, she was certainly dynamic in her revolutionary impulse, adopting ferocious shock tactics to drive the country from one mode of slothful corporatist governance to another of ideologically-directed energy in the interests of her class.

If only the Left had had anything like the same energy and, frankly, intellect. She may have been a colossal ego but no one can gainsay her intellectual capacity or capacity for hard work. She honestly had no peer which is why she has achieved cult status among lesser Tory males.

The unpopular comment (from someone like me, purportedly from the Left) is that she was probably necessary if only because the Left could not find someone of equal energy and intellectual capacity to drive its platform forward. The United Kingdom was troubled enough to need change.

The tragedy is not Thatcher (though it was to be a tragedy for many working class communities and proved to be a wrong turning in the long run) but that the Left still failed to produce that person of energy and intellectual capacity when she and her successor had gone and that it still cannot.

Instead, Labour simply sold the pass and put in someone for even longer in Government who merely tried to produce Thatcherism with an allegedly human face but upping the ante on illegal warfare (which Thatcher never engaged in), foreign alliances and the strengthening of the State.

All this was not something Young could have foreseen. Yet the tone of his book is one of grudging admiration from a centrist for a political force of nature, even when wrong-headed. We suspect that this elite view of Thatcher helped later to create the Blair phenomenon - a true tragedy.

Eleven years in power (of which ten are covered in this book) is not enough to transform a nation heart and soul. We suspect from reading Young's evidence that the British are much as they were in terms of core values as they were in the days of Wilson or Palmerston.

People like Thatcher and Blair can, from this perspective, be seen as irritants on the skin of the nation. Creatures thrust into power by mysterious party-driven means and then given an unwieldy, not always functional but still powerful State machine to play with.

Tiny (by national standards) numbers in the political elite become entranced by these figures who get us into wars and can screw up our household budgets or make us happy with handouts or delude us with 'targets' and 'achievements' that are never quite what they seem.

But, sourness aside, Young's interim biography remains a fairly judged and sound account of the 'reign' of one of the most divisive but also one of the most effective of these irritants who did genuinely, for good or ill, change the machinery and direction of the country.

[Stephen Redwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fact that Hugo Young wrote 546 pages on Margaret Thatcher, even without getting to the time of political demise in her third term of office, gives you a sense of the level of detail that he gets into. He describes Thatcher’s life from early days growing up in small town Grantham, through her early political days and deep into her premiership. It’s a brilliant example of how attitudes formed in youth can come to be a foundational rock for some (like Thatcher), whereas others go through life with seemingly no hard center that will predict what decisions they might make and how they will address challenges in life (like any number of political leaders you might name). Having said that, Thatcher was not above compromising when she had to (for example with bailouts for the car industry or giving up on the M3 monetary measure as her metric of economic success). But she is best remembered for being resolute and relishing challenges like the miners strike and Falklands War. Nevertheless, her self righteousness could lead her into sticky waters and her tone deafness caused resentment in foreign leaders - her constant battles with the EU were a case in point (although, Ronald Reagan never seemed to mind her stridency). Her refusal to support sanctions against South African apartheid, despite enormous pressure to the contrary was a great example of how she never seemed concerned to stand alone on an issue, it seemed to stimulate her sense of purpose and self-importance. She felt she was on a mission and the ends justified the means, so she judged others accordingly as “one of us”, or “wets” who should be cast aside.

In the end, her imperiousness got the better of her, but that period was only beginning at the point this book ends. There is so much ground to cover, it’s impressive how Hugo Young eloquently strings it all together. He is adept at picking the moments to recount and when to go deep. The book is packed with insight and brilliantly balances factual reconstruction with the psychology and thinking of the many political players who had to deal with her.

This is a political biography, so there is little on her relationship with her husband, Denis, or family life with her children - the latter whom she rarely referenced from my memory of the time, although she was famously publicly distraught when Mark (her son) went missing in 1982 while participating in the Paris-Dakar car rally. Fantastic book. Funnily enough, about half way through I realized I had already read it many years ago, when I came across the English edition on my bookshelf. So much for memory.

[Andrew Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's renowned as the definitive Thatcher biography, and I'm sure it's much better than her own attempt, or those of her sycophants (though I haven't put this to the test). Certainly it's a meaty read, if a little overwritten at times, which is neither a hatchet job (boo!) or a paean. It's very much the view of a privileged insider, and so has a lot of insights about personnel. Young's left-liberal leanings are mostly quite subtle, except when he lays into the Labour left in the final chapter.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

"One of Us" has been sitting on my bookshelf for over 20 years, but it's time has finally come. Hugo Young, an excellent and profoundly insightful writer, covers Margaret Thatcher's career from its beginnings to her final re-election but, alas, leaves off before her own party dumped her, a part of the tale I really would have liked to read. I particularly enjoyed this because it covered almost exactly the years I spent in Britain (1979-1992), years dominated by Mrs. Thatcher, about whom I wrote several op ed columns. It was a pleasure to review those eventful years in retrospect and from a different perspective (the author's, but mine, too--20 years later). Young is not a political writer like the guys who wrote the "Game Change" books about the US elections of 2008 and 2012. He eschews political gossip and blow-by-blow accounts of her campaigns and governing years and writes about specific events only for the insights they give to the development of her character and ideas, both of which appear to have evolved more during her career than I or most others have assumed. Young really tries to get insider her head--not easy with Mrs. Thatcher. It's clear from Young's account that she ruled more by force of character or force of will (or bullying) than by persuasion or charisma. And Young reminds us that the Conservatives never got more than 43% of the vote under her leadership, so a majority of British voters clearly had reservations about her (putting it mildly).

PS. I note that the picture of the book cover that comes up on Goodreads has a "Final Edition" banner, which my old 1990 edition does not, so maybe Young has brought the story to it's conclusion.

[Andres Cordoba · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quite dislike Margaret Thatcher and more importantly what she stood for. This did not change with this book, but nuance and depth was given in understanding a complex figure with philosophy that can easily be gleaned as from 'One of Us' but manifested in ways so opposite to what we may expect in her 'superior' notions. Hugo Young does a remarkable job at characterizing the many different tendencies that drive this spectacular British leader, even without covering the then unknown fall of her government, though not ideals or party, in her third term. Young paints the image of a passionate women who we have all come to know as the Iron Lady and spares no detail in giving us the brutality which she stuck to her principles. However, her surface level insouciance is not allowed to stretch everywhere in his descriptions. We also see her pragmatism and a brand of populism rarely seen; an unpopular leader, appealing to the masses. The political cunning of the leader is also laid bear from its simple roots in survival in a hostile environment to later both blunt and precise strikes orchestrated in a uniquely (and successfully) detached manner. In giving us these many insights, her successes and failures, Young paints a splendid biography of Thatcher as an Iron Lady with a remarkable drive and surprising thoughtfulness. One of Us then becomes the perfect title, permeating as deeply even thirty years later asking the reader to confront the turn of that critical phrase — is she one of us?

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly I struggled with this. It was a bit dry and so detailed about the details of government - and somehow not about her but about policies.

It was interesting to be taken back to the time and see what was going on behind closed doors. I was only just old enough to understand and follow politics at the time, so looking back was interesting. However, I never got a sense, from the book, of the feelings of the time. I remember it as being a very edgey, slightly verging on out of control, and this did not come across in the book. Even the miners strike and the poll tax demo's and Brixton/Toxteth - really big events from that era - just seemed downplayed and "meh".

If I had given this to my kids to read to give them a sense of what it was like in the 80's - they just wouldn't have got an idea at all. The 80's was so ALIVE somehow. when I think of the disgruntled now - the protests, the complaining - it just doesn't compare. Now seems so watery.

Maybe I was just younger and felt things more acutely.

I definitely wouldn't read this again. and probably wouldn't recommend it. I would like to read another biography about Margaret Thatcher.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I returned to this after Mrs Thatcher's death to read how Hugo Young's survey of her life and politics had worn since it was published in 1991. At that time the Spectator called it a magnificently authoritative work and having re-read it, I can't differ. I have not yet read Charles Moore's biography which I understand brings new aspects to her earlier years but Young's political analysis is strong and his wide understanding of British politics put her term of office into a context which I do not consider the passage of time has materially altered.

[Charles Blumberg]

Good historical account of Thatchers rise from obscurity into a world leader and how she led Britain out of years of liberalism into Thatcherism and a decade of prosperity via lower taxes, lower gov't spending, reducing the power of unions, privatizing companies. Pales in comparison to biographies of Harry Truman and John Adams (my gold standard of biographies).

[Tomkeese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. Unfortunately for the reader, the author is intimately familiar with the history and politics of the era of Margret Thatcher so a lot of the discussion only makes sense to someone familiar with British government in the 1970 - 1980 era. In spite of the, the book does give a pretty clear picture of Margret Thatcher and her impact on English and world polotics.

[Duncan Maccoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably written too early for a political biography. Compare and contrast with We in Scotland: Thatcherism in a Cold Climate.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should have waited to read a book about her that was written more towards the time of her death in order to get a complete picture of her. This book was slow in places focusing, it seemed, more on her foes than Mrs. Thatcher herself.

[Maysoon Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revealing information about a very strong Prime Minister who put politics and success over everything.

[Escargot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a compilation of news reports that the author put together. Its hardly reliable. Young lacks Manchester's ability to hook you from page 1...im having a hard time finishing..

[Susanne T Schroder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just re-read the 1990 edition, published just before she went. Fascinating reading, a little dry in parts, truly thrilling in others. Essential for students of the 1970s and 1980s political scene.

[Christian Caryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by a journalist who covered Thatcher during her term in office. Solid, but ultimately a bit dated. If you're looking for a one-volume treatment of her life, this will probably do.

[Ron Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb. I really miss Hugo Young since his death in 2003, great political journalist.

[Jana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tedious in its level of detail. It read more like a reporter's daily journal. Also, very one-sided, not objective.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting!