Amid cheering crowds and fluttering Union Jacks, the new prime minister swept into Downing Street and proclaimed the Good Ship United Kingdom faced a new destiny - one of free-markets, deregulation and scaled-down union rights.

It was a big day - here personalities from the arts, politics and journalism remember the day from different perspectives.

Lord Rees-Mogg: " A watershed in politics"

Lord Rees-Mogg, then editor of The Times
"I don't have any great memory of the day because The Times was out of operation, on strike. I remember a feeling of regret that we could not comment on this, and that it was a watershed in politics. I can remember the speech only because I knew she mistakenly attributed it to St Francis when actually it was written by a Californian dentist at the beginning of the 20th Century"

John O'Farrell, author of Things Can Only get Better
"I had just been trounced as the Labour candidate in my school's mock election. Having Mrs Thatcher as Prime Minister was like having one of your parents suddenly replaced by your worst ever maths teacher"

Ted Heath: Delighted

Ted Heath, former Conservative Party leader
"I was delighted that by campaigning throughout England, Scotland and Wales, addressing in all 39 public meetings, I had contributed to the victory of the Conservative Party at this general election".

Steve Nallon, Thatcher impersonator
"I remember her blue suit and her speech. I'm a Roman Catholic. I went to a Jesuit school and a lot of people there were upset by her remarks - there was a lot of ill-feeling - the fact that she'd hijacked a prayer and many people thought those words would come back to haunt her.

"I remember a parody of her speech which went along the lines of 'Where there is a cornershop, we shall overcharge on boiled ham, where there is a pensioner we will charge double'.

"I thought it was inappropriate for someone to take the words of a major saint, particularly if you look at his background as a peacemaker, non-confrontational, who retreated from society for prayer."

John Sergeant: Followed her on the election campaign

John Sergeant, BBC chief political correspondent
"I spent the whole election campaign of 1979 following her around the country.

"I remember asking some members of her staff about how good a prime minister she might be. One spoke ecstatically of a woman leader in the mould of Queen Elizabeth I. Another admitted frankly that nobody knew. 'With her,' he said gloomily, 'there's always an element of risk.' My memory is of plenty of cheering mixed with a great deal of uncertainty."

Professor Stuart Hall, political writer who coined the word "Thatcherism"
"Desperation. Desperation that overwhelmed James Callaghan, when he said 'Crisis, what crisis?' And the whole country was delivered to Mrs Thatcher.

"When I met Mrs Thatcher at the white room at number 10 and she had changed her appearance and her voice and I said to her 'Pardon me, Mrs Thatcher, but have you modelled yourself on Mrs Miniver? And she led me into another room where MGM were waiting to interview her on her favourite personality - Greer Garson, Mrs Miniver.'

Lord Steel: Regretted Jim Callaghan's timing

David Steel, then Liberal Party leader
"I was still up in Scotland because I represented the border constituency and the later results were still coming in from the rural parts.

"My abiding memory, apart from Mrs T arriving in Downing Street, was the pantechnicon removing the satellite dish from behind the pub from which they'd done all the outside broadcasts. Looking back on it is quite amusing because it must have been about 20ft in diameter and it was on a low-trailer and nowadays you'd just have a little box and that thing took up most of the road.

"My thoughts were mainly that Jim Callaghan had brought it on himself by not having the election in the autumn as we'd all expected. I was rueing the fact that he had got his timing wrong because we'd hoped that we might of continued to hold a balance of power if there had been an autumn election, so my thoughts were rueful ones as you might say."