A woman of mettle: how Iron Lady rose to power

First volume of Margaret Thatcher’s authorised biography is predictably flattering, but not a hagiography, says Shaun Connolly

HOW soon can you speak ill of the dead? That question flooded social media sites on the announcement of the death of Margaret Thatcher, but never occurred to Charles Moore.

It is not hard to see why the former Daily Telegraph editor was anointed, in 1997, by Baroness Thatcher to be her posthumous biographer — his adoration of her drips from the pages, but, while a devotee, he is capable of casting a critical eye across her motives, tactics and outcomes.