A succession of enmities

published 27 January 2017

Published by Oxford University Press (£10.99)

Margaret Thatcher's time in Downing Street continues to influence us today. Most of the many biographies of her focus on the day-to-day details of her life and career, but David Cannadine's Margaret Thatcher: A Life And Legacy takes a step back and tries to analyse the wider impact of herdecisions.

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"Cannadine leads us calmly but quickly through a series of often familiar events, managing to avoid being sucked into the usual controversies," says William Davies in the Guardian.The result is "a tale not so much of coalitions or prosperity as a succession of enmities". The outcome "is not a book of revelations", says Robbie Millen in The Times. However it is "an elegant, even-handed and economical overview of the life and legacy of Margaret Thatcher", even if it is "grudging" at times about some of her achievements.

"There are a surprising number of errors of fact," notes John Campbell in the FT, and the "brief" conclusion "sits carefully on the fence". But overall the book "is a masterpiece of compression, which rehearses the story of her tumultuous premiership with even-handed economy".

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

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