Britain's first female, and probably most divisive prime minister, and the thinking that guided her. Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1979 to 1990 and in that time presided over the most radical shift in British society since the end of the Second World War. From the privatisation of major industries such as British Telecom and the right-to-buy for council tenants, to the Falklands War and the riots that spread around deprived inner-city areas in the early 1980s, few areas of her premiership are without controversy.Thatcher was also the most nakedly ideological British politician in the latter half of the 20th century. Inspired by a sometimes volatile mix of Victorian morality and free-market economics, she wore her influences firmly on her sleeve. Peter Pugh and Carl Flint investigate her period in office and the background to her thinking. Did Thatcher really represent such a radical break from what preceded her, and how far did she actually manage to put her ideological convictions into action? AUTHOR: Peter Pugh is a businessman and company historian who has written books on the Guinness scandal and The Insider's Guide to the City. Carl Flint is an acclaimed graphic artist.