Reading People Like Us by Caroline Slocock (Biteback Publishing) was an unusual exercise. The author, who became the first ever female private secretary at No 10 during the final 18 months of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership was, by her own admission, a left-wing feminist. Thatcher’s political views were naturally very different and she heartily disliked the label “feminist”; she had reached the pinnacle of politics on her own merits and felt that other women should do the same.
Nonetheless, Slocock, looking back after nearly 30 years, provides a sympathetic, sensitive and generous portrait of this formidable woman, admitting her initial prejudices and confessing to being “shocked to discover empathy, her charm and her underlying vulnerability as well as her inner reserves of strength.”
