It is difficult to overstate the effect Margaret Thatcher had on Britain during the 1980s and '90s.

It is certainly true that, with the exception of the first post-war Labour government, her administrations did more than any other to shape the country we now live in.

She took the UK by the scruff of the neck and, for good or ill, gave it a damned good shaking. The bits that fell off were discarded forever while the bits that survived formed the basis of the new Britain.

Only Helmut Kohl outlasted Thatcher in office

Nothing, not even her own Cabinet, and certainly not the post-Michael Foot Labour party and organised labour, was allowed to stand in her way.

Here was a leader who not only had an ideology, but who also had the sheer force of will to complete her mission, no matter how much blood was spilled.

Much of what she proposed was taken direct from the thoughts of the flawed Tory "genius" Sir Keith Joseph.

But Margaret Thatcher made privatisation, monetarism and the mantra of "market forces" her own.

Inevitably, she made numerous enemies, many of them within her own party. The old-style, One Nation Tories led by her predecessor Ted Heath never forgave her for breaking the post-war consensus.

Others were equally dismayed at the way she appeared to have populated the new Tory party with estate agents, accounts managers and second hand car dealers.

But for the best part of two decades she was invincible. Only German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was set to out last her as his nation's leader.

When the Tories finally summoned up the guts to sack her, believing she had become an electoral liability, many of them immediately regretted it. And the "bring back Thatcher" campaign survives to this day.

By the end of her time, of course, it was being routinely observed by opponents, some pundits and even members of her own party that she was "bonkers".

What they really meant was that the qualities they had originally admired in her - an iron resolve, genuine beliefs and a forceful personality - they now saw as pig-headedness, dogmatism and arrogance.

It is certainly true that she had lost her previous sure footedness.

She badly misjudged the poll tax and it was her inflexibility over that issue, combined with a growing opposition towards the EU, that finally led to her fall.

Margaret Thatcher loved her image as the handbag-wielding Boadecia who had the rest of the world - with the notable exception of Ronald Reagan - quaking in their boots.

And she claimed personal responsibility for destroying the "evil empire" of Communism and driving socialism out of Britain.

Terrible puns - "Everyone needs a willie" - were delivered without a trace of humour

The truth was, many of her own party soon found her style of leadership authoritarian, and even natural allies like Chancellor Kohl lost patience with her.

Much of her image was a self-perpetuating myth. Despite the claims, she did execute U-turns over policy, she allowed more debate in Cabinet than is currently the case and she used the handbag far less than she pretended.

She was also noted for a complete lack of a sense of humour. She delivered one party conference speech likening the SDP to Monty Python's famous dead parrot without ever having seen the sketch or understanding a single word of it.

And she could innocently make cringe-enducing double entendres - such as "every prime minister needs a Willie" (meaning Whitelaw) - and then wonder why all around her were stifling giggles.

She could infamously survive on four hours sleep a night - more often than not aided by a generous helping of her favourite bed time tipple, Scotch whisky.

She also defined a new style of leadership, inventing phrases like "not one of us" and "the enemy within", which created a confrontational approach not only to groups like the miners, but even to her own party.

Most of all, she loved the job of being prime minister and clearly believed no-one else could do it quite the way she did.