In this second volume, Margaret Thatcher discusses the formative years of her childhod in Grantham, the values she learnt at home, the profound influence of her shop-keeping father, and of her own schooling on future Conservative education policies. She recounts her days at Oxford, her academic work as a scientist, marriage to Dennis and the beginning of her career as a politician when in 1959 she was selected to stand at Finchley. She gives her views on the governments of Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath and Jim Callaghan, and sets out the development of her ideas during her time in oposition.