Margaret Thatcher and Dorothy Hodgkin: Political Chemistry

ReviewsIt's good, very good! Peter Ashby FRSA, Consultant.I read the first few chapters of Margaret and Dorothy in Conversation last night and enjoyed it - on a number of levels: the well-told and absorbing story of a developing relationship; the lesser-known biographical details (well, lesser known to me anyway); the content of the discussions -fundamental opposing political ideas discussed intelligently and without rancour. D'Arcy Vallance, Author and ELT ConsultantReally enjoyed the book. The subject matter is fascinating, whetted my appetite to read more ... haven't read anything on Margaret (the blood might boil!) and limited stuff on Dorothy. Maureen Minton, Oxford City Guide....it's the topics of conversation which make it an interesting read. Most of the subjects are still with us and contentious like the social issues of gender, bringing up children, education and women's equal place in society, the morality of science. Björn Runngren. Swedish Anglophile.OverviewA fascinating set of fiction from fact conversations between two extraordinary women. Margaret Thatcher is known to all. Dorothy Hodgkin should be: she is Britain's only female scientific Nobel Prize winner, a reward for her groundbreaking work in determining the structure of penicillin and vitamin B12. It is difficult to imagine women more different in character and political beliefs, yet their lives were closely linked: Dorothy was Margaret's tutor when the younger woman studied chemistry at Oxford University; Margaret, as Prime Minister, invited her old tutor to lunch at Chequers.The setting for the conversations is Margaret's fourth year at Oxford while she carried out research work in Dorothy's crystallography lab. They range widely over topics from socialism to sexual freedom. No one knows exactly what they did discuss, but the conversations are soundly based in the factual world of post war Britain and reflect the characters of these two very interesting women.