Margaret Thatcher on interpreters/Frau Thatcher zu Dolmetscherin

BBC News reports that Amanda Galsworthy, who was the interpreter for three successive French presidents, has been talking at the Hay Festival.

President Mitterand once had Galsworthy say to Margaret Thatcher, ‘This interpreter was one of yours, but now she’s one of hours’. Allegedly Mrs. Thatcher was offended and some years later took her revenge on the interpreter:

“Years later after a lunch she called me over and said ‘I have some advice to ask of you’,” Mrs Galsworthy told the audience.

“Then, in her very loudest voice, so that everyone could hear she said ‘I’ve been meaning to ask you, a great friend of mine has a son who has failed all of his exams’.

“‘I suggested that he become an interpreter. What do you think?”‘

She added: “It was horrific because she was still prime minister so I could not say what I really felt.”

Of course, Mrs. Thatcher only nearly failed her university exams.

Mind you, I didn’t realize Margaret Thatcher had a quiet voice.

Margaret Thatcher doing the dead parrot sketch (via Boing Boing)

(Thanks to Ekkehard)

10 thoughts on “Margaret Thatcher on interpreters/Frau Thatcher zu Dolmetscherin

    • This is very near the Schwelbrennanlage, a Siemens waste project that was abandoned after noxious fumes were produced, quite a stunning building. These bottle banks have not been photographed for the last time!

    • Very good. I am told there are a couple in Nuremberg too. It’s all very well doing away with nuclear power, but they have to consider the long-term effects of recycling too.
      The local paper had a similar photo a couple of weeks later.

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