The turbulent years

Kenneth Baker, former Conservative Party Chairman, reveals Mrs Thatcher's strengths and weaknesses, and charts the mixture of accident, mistake, ambition, intrigue, slighted pride, misplaced optimism and faulty judgement which led to her decline. Drawing on the diaries he kept over 13 years, Baker gives blow-by-blow accounts of key meetings and conversations, providing an insider's view of the triumphs and failures of this controversial period. His own career at the heart of British politics gives a perspective on the crucial political decisions of the last decade and a half, from infighting within the cabinet to educational reform.