Margaret Thatcher, la “Bambola di Ferro”1. The woman who divided public opinion both in life and death An article in memory of the “Iron Lady” or the “Iron Doll”. Quotations from the Italian press

The aim of this research is not to assess Margaret Thatcher or to promote her image but rather to analyse how she was viewed in her role as Prime Minister by the press, the Italian press in particular, and to demonstrate how she embodied both categories of masculinity and femininity and also to analyse how masculinity and femininity contributed to the construction of her identity, the relationships between public life and private life and also how the media (the press in particular, at least at the beginning) influenced her image. Of course during “her reign” websites did not exist (for example facebook and now twitter, etc.) even though nowadays Mrs Thatcher has her own official website. My research is based on over ten years of study in which I interviewed journalists and politicians (and also Ambassadors) who worked with and met Mrs Thatcher during her time in office. This is because I thought it would have been a good idea to re- cord first-hand evidence from journalists who during the Thatcher years were in London as correspondents for the major Italian newspapers and who personally met Mrs Thatcher on various occasions: Paolo Filo della Torre, who was there for “La Repubblica”, centre-left wing newspaper; Alfio Bernabei who was in London as correspondent for the left-wing paper “l’Unità” and Beppe Severgnini who was there for “Il Giornale”, a centrist newspaper, and who now works for “Il Corriere della Sera” Italy’s most famous daily.