THE RETURN OF THE HANDBAG – The ghost of Lady Thatcher goes-a-haunting along the modern day corridors of power in Downing Street.

One of the questions that came up when Lady Thatcher died was what sort of gravestone to give the former Prime Minister. One wag suggested, “A very, very heavy one!” Well, it wasn’t quite heavy enough: The Lady is for Returning! But what sort of supernatural story should it be?

It’s not unknown in ghost tales for a hauntee to become a haunter. There’s the judge, for example, in Sheridan Le Fanu’s The Haunted House in Westminster and An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in an Old House in Aungier Street. Anyway, when my friend Ninia Benjamin insisted on me writing a Mrs Thatcher ghost tale, I developed the idea of Lady M not only being a ghost now haunting Downing Street but when alive saw ghosts of previous occupants. Such a scenario would, I thought, be an intriguing way of looking at the end of her tenure in Number Ten, when it was clear to even her closest colleagues that she was becoming increasingly detached from reality.

To discover more about the potential haunter PMs of the past I read The Prime Ministers, edited by the political broadcaster Iain Dale. And what an odd set of misfits they turned out to be! Yet there was much comic potential in their personalities and the lives they lived. I also did some research on the history of Downing Street and began to realise what a very peculiar place it is. There was, I read, a broom cupboard in the long corridor that leads to the Cabinet Room which was transformed into an alcove at Mrs Thatcher’s own request when the house was undergoing one of its many refurbishments. And it’s that alcove that becomes the place of Lady Thatcher’s return in my story. As she famously said herself, "It's a funny old world."

"The Return of the Handbag – The ghost story meets the comedy sketch; Nallon’s Thatcher voice rings from every page like a live performance."

Jenny Lecoat, screenwriter, novelist and author of Hedy’s Girl and the movie Another Mother’s Son

"What if Maggie Thatcher is haunting Number Ten as a ghost? Or all ex-PMs are? In this imaginative fantasy, Nallon brilliantly constructs the chaos it would cause if the lady is for returning. And very funny The Return of the Handbag is, too."

Nigel Nelson, political pundit and former political editor of The Sunday People

"Just when you thought it was safe, she’s back. A shiver will run down your back when you learn of the return of Mrs T in ghostly form. Be afraid. Very afraid"

Iain Dale, LBC broadcaster, writer and editor of the award winning book The Prime Ministers