In Path to Power, Margaret Thatcher writes for the first time about her personal life, about the formation of her character and values, and about the training and experiences which led to the 1979 election victory.
She was born and brought up in the Lincolnshire market town of Grantham, where her father became Mayor. The degree to which she imbibed at his knee the virtues of self-reliance, thrift and respectful neighbourliness is revealed in this book as never before. She went to Oxford, worked as a research chemist, was courted by and married Denis Thatcher. Then, at a time when there were no more than a handful of women in the House of Commons, she became an MP, Education Secretary and eventually, in 1975, Leader of the Opposition.
She writes explicitly about her feelings towards Ted Heath as she sat uncomfortably in his Cabinets, about her rethinking of conservatism under the inspiration of Keith Joseph, about the Winter of Discontent, the fall of the Callaghan government and the country which she inherited in 1979.
