Fashion and recipes What the personal papers reveal

When Margaret Thatcher embarked on her historic tour of the Soviet Union, her signature style was very much on show: pearls, handbags and pussy-bow blouses. Sketches released by the Margaret Thatcher Foundation archive reveal she wasn’t afraid to put her own spin on suggestions by her stylist – Margaret King, of Aquascutum, the British fashion house.

One of Thatcher’s most trusted advisers was so concerned about the barrage of personal abuse she faced in the bruising 1987 election that he urged her not to stand again. In a letter, Charles Powell, her private secretary, told her: “In two or three years’ time, you will have completed the most sweeping change this country has seen in decades and your place in history will be rivalled in this century only by Churchill.”

An appearance by Thatcher on Take Nobody’s Word For It on the BBC in which the former research chemist demonstrated a bread-making science experiment led to a host of complaints from viewers that theirs didn’t work. The papers show Mrs Thatcher also kept a stock of recipes to send to members of the public who wrote in asking for suggestions, including a “mystery starter” of beef consommé, cream cheese and curry powder. Emily Cronin and Ben Farmer