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The
Daily Telegraph
therefore endorsed Heath, but, pre-Deedes, it had prepared the intellectual ground for Mrs Thatcher.
† Angus Maude (1912–93), educated Rugby and Oriel College, Oxford; Conservative MP for Ealing South, 1950–58; for Stratford-upon-Avon, 1963–83; Deputy Chairman, Conservative Party, 1975–9; Paymaster-General, 1979–81; knighted, 1981; created Lord Maude of Stratford-upon-Avon, 1983.
* In her memoirs, Mrs Thatcher quotes herself as saying ‘lists’, but contemporary reports, for example in
The Times
, say ‘line’.
* Not only did Savile’s audience include an important slice of the electorate rarely accessible to Mrs Thatcher, but she genuinely admired his charitable work. In early 1980, as he began fundraising for the construction of Stoke Mandeville Hospital, not far from Chequers, she invited him for lunch at Number 10. ‘My girl patients pretended to be madly jealous + wanted to know what you wore and what you ate …’ Savile wrote to her afterwards by way of thanks. ‘They
all
love you. Me too!’ (Savile to PM, undated, TNA: PRO PREM 19/878). Following multiple posthumous allegations against Savile of child sex abuse and other sexual offences, this correspondence feels distinctly macabre. At the time, however, Mrs Thatcher, like so many others, took Savile at face value.
* Robert Conquest (1917–), educated Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford; author of
The Great Terror
,
The Harvest of Sorrow
and numerous other works mainly about the Soviet Union. Though British, Conquest lived for many years in California, where he was a Fellow of the Hoover Institution. Conquest was a great friend of the novelist Kingsley Amis, and introduced him to Mrs Thatcher.
† Conquest himself was always full of praise for Mrs Thatcher’s ability to have alcohol at the ready: ‘She seemed to know when it was six o’clock without having to look at her watch’ (interview with Robert Conquest).
* Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008), educated University of Rostov and Moscow Institute of History (correspondence course); author of many works, including
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
,
The First Circle
and
The Gulag Archipelago
; sentenced to eight years in the Gulag for anti-Soviet activities, 1945; released, 1953; exile in Siberia, 1953–6; officially rehabilitated, 1957; expelled from the Soviet Union, 1974; Soviet citizenship restored, 1990; Nobel Prize for Literature, 1970.
* There were limits, however, to Mrs Thatcher’s tolerance. Patrick Cosgrave, the political editor of the
Spectator
, had been one of the first to support her and tip her for the top. He also wrote one of her early biographies. Cosgrave was brilliant, but seldom sober, and it was rumoured that he had once been sick on Mrs Thatcher’s shoes (with her inside them). In any event, he ceased to be part of her inner circle, although he listed himself in
Who’s Who
as ‘Special Adviser to The Rt Hon. Margaret Thatcher 1975–9’. The verdict on Cosgrave of one who remained in the inner circle was that ‘The cocktails overcame him.’
* Frank Johnson (1943–2006), educated Chartesey Secondary School, Shoreditch and Shoreditch Secondary School; parliamentary sketch-writer of the
Daily Telegraph
, 1972–9 and 1999–2006; staff of
The Times
, 1981–8; deputy editor,
Sunday Telegraph
, 1993–5; editor,
Spectator
, 1995–9.
* Friedrich von Hayek (1899–1992), educated University of Vienna; Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics, University of London, 1931–50; Professor of Moral and Social Science, University of Chicago, 1950–62; Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly), 1974; Companion of Honour, 1984.
† Milton Friedman (1912–2006), educated Rutgers, Chicago and Columbia universities; economist and writer; Professor of Economics, University of Chicago, 1948–82; Professor Emeritus from 1982; economic columnist,
Newsweek
, 1966–84; Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, 1976.
‡ In her
Daily Telegraph
therefore endorsed Heath, but, pre-Deedes, it had prepared the intellectual ground for Mrs Thatcher.
† Angus Maude (1912–93), educated Rugby and Oriel College, Oxford; Conservative MP for Ealing South, 1950–58; for Stratford-upon-Avon, 1963–83; Deputy Chairman, Conservative Party, 1975–9; Paymaster-General, 1979–81; knighted, 1981; created Lord Maude of Stratford-upon-Avon, 1983.
* In her memoirs, Mrs Thatcher quotes herself as saying ‘lists’, but contemporary reports, for example in
The Times
, say ‘line’.
* Not only did Savile’s audience include an important slice of the electorate rarely accessible to Mrs Thatcher, but she genuinely admired his charitable work. In early 1980, as he began fundraising for the construction of Stoke Mandeville Hospital, not far from Chequers, she invited him for lunch at Number 10. ‘My girl patients pretended to be madly jealous + wanted to know what you wore and what you ate …’ Savile wrote to her afterwards by way of thanks. ‘They
all
love you. Me too!’ (Savile to PM, undated, TNA: PRO PREM 19/878). Following multiple posthumous allegations against Savile of child sex abuse and other sexual offences, this correspondence feels distinctly macabre. At the time, however, Mrs Thatcher, like so many others, took Savile at face value.
* Robert Conquest (1917–), educated Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford; author of
The Great Terror
,
The Harvest of Sorrow
and numerous other works mainly about the Soviet Union. Though British, Conquest lived for many years in California, where he was a Fellow of the Hoover Institution. Conquest was a great friend of the novelist Kingsley Amis, and introduced him to Mrs Thatcher.
† Conquest himself was always full of praise for Mrs Thatcher’s ability to have alcohol at the ready: ‘She seemed to know when it was six o’clock without having to look at her watch’ (interview with Robert Conquest).
* Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008), educated University of Rostov and Moscow Institute of History (correspondence course); author of many works, including
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
,
The First Circle
and
The Gulag Archipelago
; sentenced to eight years in the Gulag for anti-Soviet activities, 1945; released, 1953; exile in Siberia, 1953–6; officially rehabilitated, 1957; expelled from the Soviet Union, 1974; Soviet citizenship restored, 1990; Nobel Prize for Literature, 1970.
* There were limits, however, to Mrs Thatcher’s tolerance. Patrick Cosgrave, the political editor of the
Spectator
, had been one of the first to support her and tip her for the top. He also wrote one of her early biographies. Cosgrave was brilliant, but seldom sober, and it was rumoured that he had once been sick on Mrs Thatcher’s shoes (with her inside them). In any event, he ceased to be part of her inner circle, although he listed himself in
Who’s Who
as ‘Special Adviser to The Rt Hon. Margaret Thatcher 1975–9’. The verdict on Cosgrave of one who remained in the inner circle was that ‘The cocktails overcame him.’
* Frank Johnson (1943–2006), educated Chartesey Secondary School, Shoreditch and Shoreditch Secondary School; parliamentary sketch-writer of the
Daily Telegraph
, 1972–9 and 1999–2006; staff of
The Times
, 1981–8; deputy editor,
Sunday Telegraph
, 1993–5; editor,
Spectator
, 1995–9.
* Friedrich von Hayek (1899–1992), educated University of Vienna; Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics, University of London, 1931–50; Professor of Moral and Social Science, University of Chicago, 1950–62; Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly), 1974; Companion of Honour, 1984.
† Milton Friedman (1912–2006), educated Rutgers, Chicago and Columbia universities; economist and writer; Professor of Economics, University of Chicago, 1948–82; Professor Emeritus from 1982; economic columnist,
Newsweek
, 1966–84; Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, 1976.
‡ In her
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