An Evening with Charles Moore

On Tuesday evening, a large audience was treated to a very interesting and highly entertaining talk from Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher’s authorised biographer. Whether or not we believed in her policies was irrelevant. Moore managed to create a picture of a woman who will go down in history as one of the international political figures of the 20th century. He focused mostly on her international career and in particular, revealed one week in December 1984 and how that week typified her energy and commitment to her job. A few highly entertaining anecdotes about telephone conversations with Ronald Reagan had the audience giggling, as we could only imagine him grovelling at her feet. A group of our 6th form Politics students were in the audience and were given exclusive rights to questions towards the end of the evening. Hayden Davis, (LVI) writes, “On Tuesday 17th of November, Merchant Taylors’ welcomed Charles Moore to the school where he spoke about former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mr Moore was personally selected by Lady Thatcher to write her biography (of which he has just released the second of three volumes), and was granted exclusive access to her Prime Ministerial papers, newly discovered materials, and personal interviews. After being introduced by local MP David Gauke, he gave a fascinating talk, dispensing much of his unique insight into Lady Thatcher’s personality, motivations and character to us by describing just one week in her eleven year-long Prime Ministerial administration. At the end, Mr Moore took questions about Lady Thatcher’s life and time in office, making a point to take questions from the MTS boys in particular, who asked some pointed questions on everything from her principles to her foreign policy. It was a truly interesting and informative evening”.

Back to list of previous events.