Thatcher's daughter writes of mother's dementia

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — The daughter of British former prime minister Margaret Thatcher tells how her mother's dementia has left her struggling to remember the simplest facts in book extracts published Sunday.

Carol Thatcher wrote that, on her worst days, her mother struggles to finish sentences but shows occasional glimpses of her old self, particularly when talking about her time in Downing Street.

"I had always thought of her as ageless, timeless and 100 percent cast-iron damage-proof," Carol Thatcher wrote in her memoir, "A Swim-On Part In The Goldfish Bowl", which was serialised in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

"Whereas previously you never had to say anything to her twice because she'd already filed it away in her formidable memory bank, Mum started asking the...