Hugo Young (1938–2003)

The Iron Lady has now died, having observed her from afar I knew little about her. This is a biography of Margaret Thatcher, but does not pretend to cover all the details, but an more of an analysis of her actions and motives. Monetary policy in particular is dealt with in much detail. It has certainly given me a new perspective of her - not all positive. She had some tough issues to deal with, and addressed them very directly - no compromise (on the face, but not behind the scenes), and one is left feeling that a little more compassion was warranted.… (altro)

Written to coincide with a Channel 4 series on Lady Thatcher, this biography is based on intimate conversations between the Prime Minister and the major politicians of the period and Hugo Young. It traces her life from being an apprentice under Harold Macmillan and her participation in the government of Edward Heath, to her unquestioning destruction of the Conservatism of the 1950s and 1960s and her emergence as a senior stateswoman of the western world. In 1980, 1983 and 1985, Hugo Young was the British Press Awards Columnist of the Year, and in 1985 he won a "What the Papers Say" Award. He has written and presented several series, including "No Minister", "But Chancellor" and "The Thatcher Phenomenon", all of which have been published as books.… (altro)

"This is the story of fifty years in which Britain struggled to reconcile the past she could not forget with the future she could not avoid."

So opens Hugo Young's magisterial tour of the U.K.'s troubled relationship with Europe in general and the European Union in particular over the last half of the 20th century. Young, the doyen of liberal political columnists, has chosen to take on this subject at a time when the British Right remains in angry torment over it and the Labour Party appears to have at last made its peace with the Continent and all its works. The book opens with Churchill's putting on record for the first time an outline of a new united Europe, but it ends with Blair's actually "preparing to align the island with its natural hinterland beyond." In between there is a fascinating battle between wide-eyed idealism, brutal realpolitik, and treacherous conspiracy. Young has talked to everyone who matters on both sides of the Channel and elegantly produces a gripping narrative. In British terms, this is the story of half a century of wrecked political careers, ending up most recently with John Major's cataclysmic defeat in 1997. But on the wider stage, this is the story of a great question--Is Britain a European country?--and why Britain found it so difficult to answer. --Nick Wroe

With immense knowledge matched by a sure sense of narrative, Young has written the best book yet about Britain's attempt to make sense of itself after its era of empire. He takes a chronological approach, focusing on heads of state and those who carried out their policies, starting, as the subtitle indicates, with Winston Churchill and ending with Tony Blair. For 50 years, he writes, Britain has "struggled to reconcile the past she could not forget with the future she could not avoid."… (altro)