Margaret Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts in 1925. She grew up in Grantham, in the east of England. Her father had a shop selling food and the family lived in the flat above the store. At school, she wasn’t a great pupil, but she was known for her determination. By the age of ten she was helping the local ConservativeMP. It was clear she was destined for politics.
However, her first attempts to enter into the world of politics ended in failure. In 1950 and 1951 she ran for election in Dartford (just south of London). Although she lost, she earned respect for her fieryspeeches. She married Denis Thatcher in 1951, and soon gave birth to twins Carol and Mark. During the 1950s, she completed a law degree while bringing up her children. She said, “While the home must always be the centre of one’s life, it should not be the boundary of one’s ambitions.”