"Brigitte Bardot With Caligula's Eyes"

by Chris Bodenner
John Coyne, Jr. examines the softer side of The Iron Lady:

[Thatcher] "simultaneously exploiting every politically useful aspect of her femininity and turning every conventional expectation of women upside down." "What was the source of her charisma?" Miss Berlinski asks the master of Balliol College, Andrew Graham, a man of the left. "Well," he says, "I didn't think this ... but quite a lot of people - some men - found her quite sexy."

Charles Powell, a senior adviser from 1983 to 1990, tells Miss Berlinski: "She was always very conscious of being a woman. This was a tremendous part of her political personality, and she played it for what it was worth - which was a lot ... and it was very sensible to do that - after all, there were enough strikes against her as a woman to justify making the most of the advantages of it."