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Allen Lane confirms first volume of official Margaret Thatcher biography.

Margaret Thatcher
The authorized Biography
Volume One: Not For Turning
by Charles Moore

 

Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books UK, announced today, 8th April 2013, that it is to publish the first volume of Charles Moore’s authorized biography of Margaret Thatcher immediately following her funeral.

The biography was commissioned in 1997 on the understanding that it would not be published during Baroness Thatcher’s lifetime. Charles Moore was given full access to Baroness Thatcher’s private papers and interviewed her extensively; she supported all his requests for interviews with others, including those who worked most closely with her and her own family. Permission was granted to former and existing civil servants to speak freely about the Thatcher years and Charles Moore was given early access to government papers held back from public view under the thirty-year rule. Baroness Thatcher did not read the manuscript before her death earlier today.

Stuart Proffitt, Publishing Director at Allen Lane:

“Charles Moore’s biography of Margaret Thatcher immediately supercedes all earlier books written about her. Having worked closely with Baroness Thatcher on both volumes of her autobiography, and read all the other main books about her, I was astonished at how much Moore says which has never been public before. At the moment when she becomes a historical figure, this book also makes her into a three dimensional one for the first time. It gives unparalleled insight into her early life and formation, especially through her extensive correspondence with her sister, which Moore is the first author to draw on. It recreates brilliantly the atmosphere of British politics as she was making her way, and takes her up to what was arguably the zenith of her power, victory in the Falklands. (This volume ends with the Falklands Dinner in Downing Street in November 1982.) Moore is clearly an admirer of his subject, but he does not shy away from criticising her or identifying weaknesses and mistakes where he feels it is justified. It is, by any standards, an exceptionally impressive book and to be publishing it at this moment is a rare privilege.”

Margaret Thatcher: The authorized Biography, Volume One: Not For Turning by Charles Moore will be published in the UK and Commonwealth by Allen Lane @ £30 RRP hardback / £18 ebook, and in the USA by Alfred A. Knopf. Charles Moore is now completing the second and concluding volume of the biography, Herself Alone.

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