Friends — and foes — salute the Thatcher biog

 
P16 Londoner's Diary
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24 April 2013

George Osborne did not weep any tears at last night’s launch of Charles Moore’s official Thatcher biography but he did congratulate fellow guest the Bishop of London on his brilliant sermon at last week’s funeral, which made the Chancellor cry. Among the other guests at Banqueting House in Whitehall were David Cameron, Lord Lawson, playwright David Hare, Mayor Boris Johnson and Lord Heseltine, the man who brought down the Iron Lady in 1990.

Hezza seemed unusually reluctant to be photographed but it was thought sporting of him to turn up at all and he queued to have his copy signed by Moore.

Lady T’s successor Sir John Major, who had toothache during the leadership battle, had a previous engagement.

Former Cabinet Secretary Lord (Robin) Butler said he might have had a hand in saving Mrs T from the Brighton bomb. “I was keeping her up late, as civil servants often do,” he told me. “Otherwise she might have been in another room.”

Guests were surprised and delighted to receive free copies of the book. How very un-Thatcherite.

Some Telegraph scribes thought Moore might have missed a trick by not mentioning Ian Waller, former Sunday Telegraph political correspondent, as an early lover of Thatcher at Oxford. “He always seemed very friendly with her and we thought that’s where his best stories came from,” said an ageing scribe. But Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, who shared a small office with him, denies the suggestion.

Lady Antonia Fraser, a founder member of the 20 June Group, which plotted to bring down Thatcher, professed that she was no friend of the Iron Lady. “I admired her. She was a strong woman. I am here as a biographer. I am a great believer in biography.”

And turning her gaze to the evening sunlight streaming through the windows into the room with its Rubens ceiling, she remarked: “King Charles went out to his execution from that middle window. It was so cold he wore two shirts so that people wouldn’t think he was trembling with cowardice. I wish it had been fine like today.”

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