The Strange Death of Tory England The Strange Death of Tory England The Strange Death of Tory England is a book of political commentary by the journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft, published in 2005. In the run-up to the United Kingdom general election of 2005, Wheatcroft looks at the journey of the British Conservative Party, from being the country's most successful political party of the 20th century to its wilderness of a long period in opposition, by way of Margaret Thatcher's heyday and her fall from power and the quite different style of John Major. The book begins with the Conservative leadership contest of 1963, following the resignation
Edward Heath including pianist Moura Lympany. When Heath was Prime Minister she was approached by the Conservative MP Tufton Beamish, who said: "Moura, Ted must get married. Will you marry him?" She said she would have done but was in love with someone else. She later said the most intimate thing Heath had done was to put his arm around her shoulder. Bernard Levin wrote at the time in "The Observer" that the UK had to wait until the emergence of the permissive society for a prime minister who was a virgin. In later life, according to his official biographer Philip Ziegler,