I left about a year early to concentrate on writing – it was at the time of the financial crisis in 2008. I’d had my first book The Sky Blue Parcel – a financial thriller featuring a high-flying early-thirties Treasury civil servant, Jane Charles – published. That had gone quite well and people found the setting particularly authentic.” This space is where people and organisations help shape our policies, services, laws and culture. It’s threatened when – as has already happened – peaceful protest is restricted, charities fear to speak up, government makes it harder for its decisions to be reviewed by the courts, standards of behaviour in public office are ignored and politicians foment division. Culture History, music, cooking, travel, books, theatre, film – but also with an eye on the ‘culture wars’, nationalism and identity. Caroline set up Civil Exchange in 2011. She is also a founding member of A Better Way, a network hosted by Civil Exchange which is committed to improving services and strengthening communities. She is a co-convenor of the network. Much more than meets the eye in this book – really interesting on women and power in the present day as well as Thatcher and her time. Mishal Husain

I’m going to make a kind of nuanced case for her (Lady Thatcher) in the debate. To not accept her achievements is wrong.” Argument Honestly held opinions and provocative argument based on current events or our recent reports.The end is coming... Margaret Thatcher opens the European Information Centre in East Anglia in May, 1990. Picture: ARCHANT (Image: Archant) In government, Caroline was the first female Private Secretary at No 10, working as Private Secretary to two Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher and then John Major, between 1989-1991. At the Treasury, she advised the Chancellor on public sector priorities and reformed the public expenditure system, and also worked to improve the culture and working practices of that department. At the Department for Education and Skills, she oversaw an expansion of childcare and early years education, working closely with voluntary organisations and local authorities to deliver services on the ground. These are all part of social infrastructure, of course, but it also includes less tangible things – the feeling that you can trust your neighbours, that people look after each other and cherish their shared environment. An ability to influence the things that matter, to have a real say, and not have change imposed. Ideal places like these are rich in associative activity and community, voluntary and faith organisations and groups, as well as having a prosperous private sector and wellrun and responsive public services. All of these organisations will be working together to build a good place. ‘As policy-makers and practitioners we have a blind spot’

Cronyism and Corruption Byline Times uncovers the nepotism that greases the wheels of British politics. I was at her side as she travelled around Britain, I saw her dress down her ministers in private and I was the only other woman in the Cabinet room when she broke down in tears, as she resigned. I wrote an account two years ago of our relationship and the person I saw up close, in People Like Us: Margaret Thatcher and Me, because I wanted to put the record straight on her as a woman. Daniel has led numerous initiatives helping government and the public sector to transform policy and bring their services closer to the public. On equalities, international development, democracy, human rights, the arts, the role of civil society, family policy – and in many other areas – Daniel has helped organisations create strategies and communications that deliver real change – winning new resources, improving legislation and shaping the public discourse.

We fell in love talking about civil service reform! (Truly)

For all its faults, this portrayal of Margaret Thatcher drills down to the essence of her character. If you can get past the “truth decay”, which seeps into the scenes conjured up in creator Peter Morgan’s mind, there are certainly some truths which cannot be ignored. Bedford School, from the age of eight, provided happier memories. Afterwards: university. Cambridge. I had long conversations with one of the two writers, Jonathan Lynn, in 1978 and 1979 about what civil servants were like, before Yes Minister came out. He was then the director of the Cambridge Theatre Company and I’d written a play, Outside In, about a civil servant in the health service who stays at home because he can’t see any point in going to work.

Now: Runs think-tank Civil Exchange and a leadership network aiming to improve services and strengthen communitiesThe most striking part of the book is the description of the day she resigned…which is very hard to read almost, it’s very emotional…very worth reading. Andrew Marr, Start the Week One of my mother’s brothers had been a racing driver with his own team of Jowett Jupiter sports cars – Alf Thomas. He was famous for finishing a race even after he had been hit on the head by the bonnet that had flown off the car in front of him. We should recognise her achievement as a woman, getting to the place she got to, and also look at her honestly for who she was as a person – and take away this mythology as an Iron Lady/Spitting Image hag and see her for what she was: a really remarkable woman able to do things that the men around her were unable to do.”