The Senecans: Four Men and Margaret Thatcher

By Peter Stothard

A year after the death of Margaret Thatcher, a young woman arrives to ask Peter Stothard, former Editor of The Times, some sharp questions about his memories of the Thatcher era. During her interview the offices from where he has long observed British politics are being flattened by wrecking balls. Forgotten stories return. From the destruction of a collapsing newspaper plant emerge portraits of ‘the Senecans’: a Hollywood screenwriter who wrote Thatcher’s speeches, a socialite former socialist who comforted her with flattery, a comic political columnist whom she admired but rarely read and a multi-millionaire film-producer whom she consulted but never acknowledged. The Senecans took their name from their taste for the work of Seneca, a philosopher, courtier and acquirer of massive wealth during the age of Emperor Nero. Blending memoir with ancient and modern politics in the manner of his acclaimed diaries On the Spartacus Road and Alexandria, Stothard sheds a sideways light on recent history. In finally identifying his interviewer he answers questions about his own literary and political journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Duckworth Overlook
• Release date: Oct 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9780715651384

Peter Stothard

Peter Stothard is editor of The Time Literary Supplement. He was born in 1951 and educated at Brentwood School, Essex, and Trinity College, Oxford. He was editor of The Times from 1992 to 2002, and has written widely on modern politics and ancient literature. He was voted Editor of the Year by Granada’s ‘What the Papers Say’ in 2000, and was knighted for services to newspapers in 2003. Harper Collins published his previous book, “30 Days: A Month at the Heart of Blair’s War “, in 2003.