It is often said that no political life ends well. To illustrate this fact, near the centenary of
Margaret Thatcher’s birth, Charles Moore and Kate Ehrman are bringing their semi-
dramatisation of her last three days in office to the Rye Arts Festival on Monday, September 15.
Charles Moore was asked by Margaret Thatcher to be her authorised biographer, an
enormous task he fell to with intellectual zeal and scrupulous care. Three volumes Not
for Turning, Everything she Wants and Herself Alone have now been condensed into a
one volume Margaret Thatcher, the Authorised Biography, published by Allen Lane
(Penguin).
It is from this insider and personal knowledge that Charles has been able to piece together his take on the last three days as PM of this formidable woman.
A little bit of background on Charles Moore. Although being tall and slim, he is the
foremost heavyweight political journalist of our times. He edited the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator, and is still chairman of the latter and writes columns for both.
Just as interesting to us all here in Rye is that this married man with two children and two grandchildren (a third on the way) is a fanatical localist, and East Sussex man. Now Lord Moore of Etchingham, he was born in 1956 and brought up in Whatlington, near Battle. In fact, a few years ago when his son got married, apart from the bride, every last thing was sourced from within a small radius of Etchingham: church, wine, meat, cheese, flowers, choir, tent, the lot!
He remembers playing on the grass at Rye as a lad, and occasionally worships at our local Catholic church in Watchbell Street. He and Lady Moore have been spied at the Kino and the odd local hostelry. He hunts and falls off regularly with our local pack, and will sometimes be persuaded to partake of pheasant with the peasants in Rye (us!), so we must treasure this local treasure.
Kate Ehrman, who voices the Iron Lady, helped Charles with various aspects of the book, including translating foreign sources and the huge task of quote checking. She currently works at Garsington Opera, but they hereby promise this joint performance is not sung!
Whatever your politics, The Fall of Thatcher will be a factual, faithful and fascinating
insight into the life of a PM who genuinely, rightly or wrongly, did her utmost for us, her
people. So if you have ever wondered why, or indeed how, the woman who won the Cold War and three general elections in succession was ousted by her own party, here is the authorised account from letters, interviews, speeches, of the underhand in-fighting behind an extraordinary political assassination… whodunnit?
As a postscript to this piece, Charles has just rung and told me that the condensed volume I mentioned earlier, deliveries and couriers willing, will be on sale at the Rye festival event, because September 15 was always its intended and much hoped for publishing date. So if you wanted to buy one of the first copies to go on sale, Charles will be signing them after the show. What a fabulous Christmas present for yourself or a political friend or parent!
The venue is Rye Community Centre, Rye, TN31 7LE. Tickets £15, time 6:30pm for a 7pm
start. Book online at www.ryeartsfestival.org.uk or by telephone: 01797 462168.
Image Credits: Rye Arts Festival .