NEW YORK – Salman Rushdie is remembering Margaret Thatcher with the same complicated feelings he had for her while she was alive: disagreement with her politics, but gratitude for her support when he was forced into hiding in 1989 after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called for his death.
“She had a great life, and offered protection for me when I needed it,” said Rushdie, interviewed Monday morning during a promotional tour for the film adaptation of his Booker Prize-winning novel “Midnight’s Children.”
Mr. Rushdie, 65, said he met Thatcher just once, at an annual Scotland Yard gathering held for those being protected.
“She was very considerate, and, surprisingly, touchy-feely,” Mr. Rushdie said. “She would tap you on the arm and say, ‘Everything OK?’ I hadn’t expected that touch of tenderness.”
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