Archive

Guide to the archives, 1979-90

Below are links to guides on specific topics & documents from MT's Premiership, 1979-90

This is work in progress: the 1979-90 archives are only now beginning to be opened and many more pages will be added in coming years

Sources

MT's official files [from TNA; downloadable in PDF format]

MT's private files [selections available from the Churchill Archive Centre in Cambridge]

MT in US archives [Presidential Libraries, etc]

Topics

1979: St Francis's prayer [how MT, newly appointed PM, came to offer a prayer on the steps of Downing Street - attributed to St Francis of Assissi, but actually dating from 1912]

1979: MT's official papers [brief review of material released at TNA in Kew]

1979: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre]

1979: MT's private papers ["Slim to win" - MT's pre-election diet]

1979: Arguing with Auntie [MT's strained relationship with the BBC]

1979-89: Chancellor's Private Office files [links to hundreds of digitised files from the Chancellorships of Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson]

1979-81: Origins of the 1981 budget [summary of economic policy 1979-80 and background to the 1981 budget]

1979-82: Falklands - Lord Carrington's files [Private Office files released to us under Freedom of Information & uploaded in full]

1980: MT's official papers [brief review of material released at TNA in Kew]

1980: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre]

1981: MT's official papers [brief review of material released at TNA in Kew]

1981: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre]

1981-82: Poland [Reagan Library papers on the Polish crisis of 1981-82, which brought MT into sharp collision with the White House over US attempts to block the Siberian Gas pipeline]

1982: Falklands - MT's official papers [brief review of material released at TNA in Kew & links to all her main Falklands files]

1982: Falklands - the US 'tilt' to Britain [records of the key National Security Council meeting of 30 Apr 1982, first published here]

1982: Falklands - CIA documents [declassified CIA documents on the war]

1982: Falklands - Commons audio & Rentschler diary [links to audio of House of Commons statements plus the previously-unpublished diary of the key White House official who handled relations with Britain during the war, Jim Rentschler]

1982: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre, particularly Falklands]

1982: MT's memoir of the Falklands War [commentary & text of memoir]

1983: MT's official papers [brief review of material released at TNA in Kew, including Grenada]

1983: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre, including 1983 General Election]

1984: MT's official papers [brief review of material released at TNA in Kew, including coal strike]

1984: MT's visit to Hungary [visit of February 1984, with context back to 1979]

1984: MT's Fontainebleau memoir [commentary & text of memoir on the European Council which settled Britain's quarrel with the European budget]

1984: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre, including coal strike and the Brighton Bomb]

1985: MT's Moscow memoir [commentary & text of memoir on Chernenko's funeral & arrival of Gorbachev as Soviet leader]

1985: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre, including end of coal strike, rates, Westland]

1985-86: MT's official papers [brief review of material released at TNA in Kew, including Westland, Ponting, Hong Kong]

1985: Geneva Summit [the first Reagan-Gorbachev summit]

1986: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre, including Westland, US bombing of Libya, 1986 conference speech]

1987: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre, including 1987 general election, Moscow visit, poll tax, economy]

1988: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre, including her private files on the Bruges speech]

1988 Spt: The Bruges Speech [FCO file on the drafting of MT's explosive attack on European integration at Bruges in September 1988]

1988-90: MT's official papers

1989: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre, including her private files on resignation of Nigel Lawson]

1989 Jun: Tiananmen Square

1990: MT's private papers [full review of material released at the Churchill Archive Centre, including her private files on her fall from power in November]

1990: Paris press briefings, 20/21 Nov [tape of Bernard Ingham's press briefings the evening of the first leadership ballot]

1975-90: "Gentleman George" - the secret archive of George Younger [selections published on this site]

1940s-80s: Thatcher, Hayek & Friedman [MT's dealings with the great free market economists]

1981-2000s: MT's FBI file [release of FBI file on her personal security]

1992: MT in official files [MT material in 1992 files released at TNA, including Chernobyl]

1994: MT in official files [MT material in 1994 file release at TNA]