I will get onto Thatcher's era in the fifth book. In the series I've featured the Prime Ministers Harold Wilson, Harold Macmillan, Winston Churchill. Yes, I'm writing a five-part series called the Clifton Chronicles, my latest novel Best Kept Secret is the third in the series.

Will Thatcher feature in any of your upcoming novels? Margaret Thatcher has never featured in my books, just mentioned. She thought she was the Prodigal Daughter. Eliot and Wordsworth were her favourite poets. Did Thatcher's love of literature include reading your novels? Eliot and Wordsworth poems will be printed on the Order of Service. You're attending Thatcher's funeral this Wednesday with your wife. They'll get Hilary Clinton and realise how good she is and then they'll wake up. Ironically, I think the American family have woken up, they're a pretty slow lot.

When do you think we'll see another female Prime Minister? I don't think she really believed it was going to happen. I was a child, I was the baby of the team to make her Leader. I remember when Margaret become Leader of the Opposition, she never thought she'd become Leader, she wanted to be Shadow Chancellor. The girls were so pleased, because the Japanese rule wouldn't normally allow that.Ī female undergraduate at the university said to Margaret 'I want to be Prime Minister of this country,' Margaret replied 'don't tell anyone.' Margaret then took questions for an hour, going: woman, man, woman, man. You must say - man, woman, man, woman, man, woman, otherwise you'll never get a woman's question.' The rule in Japan is that all the men ask the questions first and then the women are allowed to ask questions.

I said to her: 'We have a problem here Prime Minister. I was in Japan with Margaret once and we were speaking at the University of Tokyo. Tell us a memory about Margaret Thatcher.

The Prodigal Daughter by Jeffrey Archer