The Downing Street Years by Margaret Thatcher (1993, Abridged, Audio Cassette)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "The Downing Street Years". In fact, I've read it so much that my copy of the book is falling apart and missing pages.

Without a doubt, reading "The Downing Street Years" is a mountaintop experience. It is the memoirs of someone who radically changed not only Great Britain, but also the world. The tone of Margaret Thatcher's memoirs is very dramatic and gripping and laced with a fierce defiance. It is an awe-inspiring page-turner that makes the reader feel pumped-up and excited when they finally put the book down. Of course, you never want to put down this book.

"The Downing Street Years" touches on all the high points of Margaret Thatcher's Premiership, from achieving a peace settlement in Rhodesia to the economic crises that Britain faced in the early 1980s, to the inner-city riots of 1981, to the Falklands War, to the Miners' Strike, to the Westland Scandal to winning a third term as Prime Minister in 1987, to persuading President George H.W. Bush to send troops to the Persian Gulf after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. In addition, Margaret Thatcher recalls in riveting tones, vanquishing the all-powerful Socialists and union bosses and privatizing government-owned industries and transforming Britain from being the Sick Man of Europe to being the fourth richest country in the world and of rescuing Britain from economic ruin and insolvency and leading it to unprecedented prosperity.

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of a nation that was economically weak, class-ridden, in the grip of powerful and corrupt Socialist politicians and union bosses and full of despair. Throughout the 1980s, with her iron will, forceful personality and vision of what Britain could be, Margaret Thatcher rallied the British people and reminded them once again that anything is possible, from allowing tenants in public housing to buy their own homes and privatizing government-owned industries, such as British Airways, British Gas, British Telecom and others and through her privatization, even blue-collar workers could buy shares and make their fortunes. Margaret Thatcher's example in Britain gave hope to the oppressed peoples behind the Iron Curtain and inspired them to rise up against their Soviet oppressors and take back their countries and their destinies.

It was Margaret Thatcher who single-handedly won the Falklands War and refused to give in to pressure to reach a settlement with the Argentine dictators and thus handed the West a huge victory in the Cold War. After the Falklands War, the other nations of the world began to have a healthy respect for Britain once again. It was Margaret Thatcher who made sure that Ronald Reagan 'Stayed the course' both on economic policy and in winning the Cold War.

"The Downing Street Years" recounts all of that and makes for great reading and it reflects that in an age of 40-watt politicians and personalities, Margaret Thatcher was a 1000-kilowatt leader who rescued a nation and by extent, Western Civilization and who won the Cold War and crafted the world we live in today. Margaret Thatcher's achievements and transformation of Britain and the world are why I give it a 5/5 rating.

Reading the personal account of someone who is larger than life and who so dramatically transformed the world is undescribable. It makes any other adventure book seem tame by comparison. I can only suggest that you buy the book to read for yourself.