Thatcher pocketed Reagan’s doodles at summit—files

LONDON – Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher swiped a page of doodles by then-US President Ronald Reagan at a summit more than 30 years ago, newly released papers revealed on Saturday.

Britain’s only female prime minister to date noticed the US leader sketching during a G7 summit in Canada in 1981 and decided to pocket the drawings, according to a historian who recalled her talking about the doodles.

“She had seen him doing it during the meeting,” said Chris Collins, a historian with the Margaret Thatcher Foundation which promotes the former premier’s conservative, free-market philosophy.

“He thought it was of no value whatsoever and left. She thought it was rather fun and picked it up.”

The drawings of five heads, an eye and a man’s torso, executed in blue ink at a meeting of leaders of the world’s seven richest countries, were among a collection of Thatcher’s private papers dating from 1981 released on Saturday.

Thatcher, who led Britain from 1979 until 1990, labelled the page with the words “Ronald Reagan’s ‘doodling’ at the Ottawa conference” in the bottom right-hand corner.

One of the characters sports a trilby and is smoking a pipe, while another has a bushy beard.

Reagan and the woman known as the “Iron Lady” shared strong anti-communist and free-market convictions and became firm personal friends during Thatcher’s premiership.

The former Conservative leader, now 86, agreed nearly a decade ago for her personal documents to be housed at Cambridge University.

US actress Meryl Streep won an Oscar last month for her portrayal of the increasingly frail ex-leader, who suffers from dementia, in “The Iron Lady”.