Charming Margaret

NATHANIEL PARKER remarks about Margaret Thatcher that he ‘never heard anyone call her charming’ (‘Bringing the house down’, November 16). During the 1980s, while serving as Private Secretary to three senior Government Ministers, I met Mrs Thatcher a number of times and found her altogether charming as an individual, if (correctly) steely on matters of policy. I was far from alone in this opinion. Perhaps you could kindly relay this to Mr Parker, so that an obvious lacuna in his experience can be filled? Neil Hoyle, Kirkcudbrightshire