S a tearful Margaret Thatcher was driven from Downing Street on a chilly November morning in late 1990, Britain’s first female Prime Minister seemed to reflect the national mood of foreboding: the BSE crisis, the devastating bombing campaigns in Northern Ireland, Manchester and the capital, oil-tanker spills off the Shetlands and Elizabeth II’s infamous ‘’, during which her children got divorced and a terrible fire destroyed 115 rooms at Windsor Castle. There was also the first void Grand National in more than 150 years of running when John White and the 50-1 shot Esha Ness, trained by Jenny Pitman, ploughed on regardless after a false start. It seemed to sum up
