Several years ago, I spent half the summer “learning” French in Quebec City. In my free time I explored the city, ducking into used bookstores when I came across them. One afternoon I came across a book store with a large selection of English language books. I must have spent at least an hour pouring over the books on display, purchasing at least a dozen. Prized among my haul was a copy of The House is Not a Home by Erik Nielsen. That’s right, the Erik Nielsen. Former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. The catalyst for the curtailing of Guy Favreau’s political career. Brother of Leslie Nielsen. Doesn’t ring a bell?

Fair enough. After all, how many people get excited by the memoirs of obscure politicians? I am sure in certain circles my joy over securing a copy of Judy LaMarsh’s Memoirs of a Bird in a Gilded Cage would be enough to have me committed to an institution. The more political memoirs I read, however, the more I am drawn into the past as a current event. They are a politician’s attempt to force their perspective into the historical record. They are written with conviction and purport to contain the real version of events (as opposed to the version that was reported in the press or in a colleague’s or aide’s memoirs). Granted, most of those events are now mere footnotes of history, but in these memoirs, those events have an immediacy underpinned with self justification.

Of course, The House is Not a Home was not my first political memoir. In the late nineties, at the now defunct drug store chain F&M, I came across The Downing Street Years by Margaret Thatcher in a bargain bin for $3.99. I immediately bought a copy. A few weeks later I bought a second copy, as I had lent my first copy to a woman at work. I should have waited given that she returned it, unread, a few days later.

It was a good choice for my first political memoir. Clearly and forcefully written, it was surprisingly engaging. More prime ministerial and presidential memoirs followed, bought at used bookstores and library book sales. I particularly prize my copy of The Labour Government 1964-1970 A Personal Record by Harold Wilson (especially since it horrified one of my strait-laced conservative friends in high school – he was quite shocked by the title).

But it wasn’t until I obtained my copy of The House is Not a Home that I discovered the delights of memoirs written by cabinet ministers. This is political history from a totally different perspective. These memoirs give additional insights and behind the scenes glimpses of the well known historical narratives focused on their bosses. Their publication, however, can often be a political act – a minister who has been dismissed rushes out a memoir in order to put their version of events on the record. These memoirs serve as a counter balance to the magisterial autobiographies of presidents and prime ministers, written after they have left office and cloaked in an air of authority.

When Margaret Thatcher released The Downing Street Years, fifteen of her cabinet colleagues had already published their accounts of her government. A further sixteen memoirs of the Thatcher and Major governments have been published since. These thirty-two books are first hand accounts of one of the most transformative governments in British history. Collectively, these are the views of a large swath of the Thatcher/Major cabinets.

This blog is an attempt to unite these views from the cabinet into a single account. This is the story of the Thatcher/Major governments from the perspective of thirty-one of the men and women who served at its heights. Since every history must begin a little before the beginning in order to provide context, this blog will begin by tracing our protagonists’ rise to political prominence. It will then examine their collective experience of Ted Heath’s government before turning to the five years in opposition that led up to taking power in 1979. Finally, the events of the fourth longest serving government in British history will be chronicled.

We’ll begin at the beginning with the rise and rise of Margaret Thatcher.