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Denis cheerfully cultivates his slightly farcical image, but behind it hides a shrewd, quick mind and a loyal, supportive husband. "He is no intellectual," says a friend, "but he can size up people well and get to the core of things with uncanny speed. You don't fool him easily." Margaret relies heavily on Denis' judgment and political instincts. "She gets the unvarnished truth from him," says Lord Whitelaw, a longtime friend of the Thatchers'. "Sometimes she does not like what he tells her, but she knows he is totally on her side. And he is also there," adds Whitelaw, "when she wants to let off steam in privacy" -- which is often.
Denis' detractors argue that his influence on his wife merely reinforces her prejudices. He is frequently criticized for having an "empire mentality," regarding the British as superior to all others. In private, Denis admits that he is guilty as charged.
Yet the rather old-fashioned Denis revels in his wife's dominant role. "He is tremendously proud of what she has achieved," explains a close friend. In fact, he was indirectly responsible for much of it. Born into a prosperous middle-class family, Denis studied industrial administration and accountancy. Married once before, he was already an established businessman, managing a chemicals company, with an exemplary record as an artillery officer in World War II behind him, when he wed Margaret in 1951. He provided the financial stability she needed to launch her political career.
In the second-floor private flat at Downing Street, Denis leads an unpretentious life. He drives a nondescript blue Ford and occasionally drops in at a pub for a "tincture." Pedestrians on London streets often spot the familiar pinstripe-suited figure strolling jauntily along, umbrella tightly furled, trilby at a rakish angle. But to protect his privacy, the British pretend not to recognize him. And foreign tourists, who have rarely noted Denis standing in the background of all those state photos, take him for just another elderly English toff.