Why read Killing Thatcher?

Book cover of Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown

Book description

The Irish Times No.1 Bestseller
A New Statesman 'Best Book of 2023 so far'
'As taut as a fictional thriller' Mail on Sunday
'Gripping, detailed and richly layered' Guardian

The gripping account of how the IRA came astonishingly close to killing Margaret Thatcher

KILLING THATCHER is the gripping…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Killing Thatcher as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Jonathan Trigg

Author

I've always liked Rory Carroll's journalism and I hoped he would bring that to the book - and he did in spades. Brilliantly researched, it told the story of the IRA operation to kill Thatcher but made it all very human, an awesome piece of writing.

From Jonathan's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Andrew Gumbel

Author

Carroll tells the thrilling and appalling story of how the IRA plotted and came very close to decapitating the British government by blowing up the seaside hotel housing Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet colleagues during a Conservative Party conference in 1984.

Students of history will find dozens of new insights and explanations of what the IRA was thinking and how it mounted the plot.

The rest of us are offered a thrilling read that is also a meditation on history, memory, and the long-term consequences of political violence.

From Andrew's 3 favorite reads in 2023.