Word: thatcher
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...often meeting with a small group of Cabinet ministers. On Thursdays at 10:30, there is a full Cabinet session, with Mrs. Thatcher at the center of the boat-shaped table. She hurries the ministers briskly along, rarely allowing any departures from the agenda. When Parliament is in session, she spends the mornings with her staff readying for question time, that twice-weekly exercise in which the Prime Minister fields queries, and often insults, from opposition M.P.s. A cook is brought in on question days to prepare what Thatcher calls "good nursery food" (shepherd's pie, or perhaps a stew...
...evenings free of meetings and state occasions, she and Denis often entertain. If after-dinner conversation wades too deeply into politics, Denis is likely to excuse himself to watch television. Even when Thatcher is finished with postprandial conversation, the day is not over: she sifts through the papers in her red leather briefing boxes before turning out the light. Weekends are usually spent at Chequers, the Prime Minister's official country residence in Buckinghamshire. While Denis practices his putting on the lawn, his wife writes letters or reads (her favorite author: John le Carre). But even in the solitude...
Tough as she may be with her ministers and fellow M.P.s, Thatcher can display a warm, caring side...
...remarkable memory for names of wives and children, and she can be gracious in embarrassing moments. Once, at a dinner at Chequers, a nervous waitress spilled a plate of roast beef and gravy on the Treasury's Sir Geoffrey Howe. Thatcher leaped to the terrified girl's side and comforted her: "There, there, dear. It could happen to anybody...
...Thatcher looks, if anything, younger now than when she first won the job. She has grown slimmer (current weight: just under 140 Ibs.), has had her teeth capped and has taken to wearing more stylish clothes. After four trying years, Thatcher's Wedgwood face remains virtually unlined, and her eyes still have their girlish sparkle. "There's no magic formula," Thatcher explains. "The only secret is that I love this job. It suits me and stimulates me. There's never been one moment when I thought, 'Oh, my goodness, I wish I wasn't here...