Richard Vinen

Maggie Rising

Promised You a Miracle: UK80–82

By

Allen Lane 436pp £20 order from our bookshop

Thatcher’s Trial: Six Months that Defined a Leader

By

Bloomsbury 248pp £20 order from our bookshop

In March 1981 British civil servants acted out a secret war game about how to respond to a Soviet attack. The exercise ended when they pressed the button for a nuclear strike. Ministers occasionally popped their heads round the door but, in general, paid little attention to this grim charade. They had worries of their own. Ten days earlier the budget had attracted fierce criticism, including, famously, a protest from 364 economists, one of whom said that he foresaw ‘apocalypse’. The previous month the government had backed down when faced with the threat of a miners’ strike – a humiliating moment for ministers who were haunted by the way that the miners had toppled the Heath government in 1974.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • 'The breadth of Clarke’s knowledge and experience, coupled to a conspicuous absence of pomposity, makes for easy an… ,
    • In this month's Silenced Voices, Lucy Popescu shines a light on Myanmar's persecution of writers and journalists, p… ,
    • Lecture on war and peace in 19th-century Europe by Professor Sir Richard Evans, Thurs 25 Oct, 6.30pm Europe House… ,
    • 'Why, throughout the world, are so many people fascinated by the fiction and reality of espionage? And why of all p… ,
    • . here on books, Muriel Spark and life's tangled dance ,
    • RT : There aren't enough aggressive subtitles these days: ,
    • Churchill's on the cover of the October edition of the magazine. Piers Brendon reviews two new books about the Brit… ,
    Follow Us