Making Speeches

Having recently passed the 40th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s entry into Number 10 Downing Street, the burgeoning field of Thatcher studies continues to attract the attention of scholars and students alike. The dense array of literature has thus far comprehensively covered Thatcher’s politics, personal life and famous speeches, but the approaches she took to her speech writing have hitherto been overlooked. By consulting a variety of primary sources such as the Churchill archives which house Thatcher’s papers Tom Hurst deftly presents a comprehensive account of Margaret Thatcher’s speechmaking. By encompassing the creation, delivery and dissemination of the speeches before concluding with a focus on the reception of these speeches in an unprecedented digital age, Hurst fills an existing gap. By focusing on the oft-overlooked staff who helped Thatcher draft her speeches – and in so doing, shaped Thatcherism from behind the scenes – Hurst promotes an entirely original work that unveils the Iron Lady’s reliance on her speechmakers, which has previously been unexplored.