An assassination attempt that nearly succeeded

I remember vividly the IRA’s attack on the Brighton hotel in 1984 which was an attempt to assassinate the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Spoiler – the attempt failed….but it came very, very close to succeeding). Rory Carroll’s book Killing Thatcher is the story of the attack and what happened from the point of view of the terrorists, the politicians and the investigators. As far as is possible, it is an objective account explaining the history and motivations, and also what led to the events.

This book reads like a spy thriller, despite being non-fiction. Some of this is because of the story which is being told but it is mostly because of the narrative skills of the author who adds details and life to the facts and humanises people from all sides. He is good on the background to the bombing and puts the events into context for the reader – even though I remember 1984 I haven’t read a huge amount of Irish history and I wasn’t aware of all of the information in this book. Despite the amount of information in the book it is actually quite short but I never felt that I was being crammed with facts or that the story was being rushed.

This is, for me at least, very recent history and it is fascinating to read about it in this very factual way. I found this account of events gripping and was totally engaged by this book. It is also interesting to compare it with another assassination attempt detailed in Great Hatred – see my review here.