"Life Begins at 65"

Though she no longer commands the spotlight at 10 Downing Street, Margaret Thatcher expects to remain visible on the world stage for years to come. "Life begins at 65, and I shall be working for the future," said Thatcher, who will continue to represent her London constituency of Finchley.

Among the options Thatcher is considering are accepting invitations to lecture in the U.S., Europe and Japan; writing her memoirs; and founding her own political think tank. A Thatcher foundation would not lack funds, since her memoirs could fetch as much as $8 million, plus an additional $2 million for serialization rights. "I am sure it would command one of the highest prices ever paid for a political memoir," says Lynn Nesbit, a literary agent based in Manhattan who counts Jimmy Carter among her clients. Other publishing insiders even suggest that Thatcher's autobiography would fare better in the U.S. than Ronald Reagan's, which was published last month to disappointing sales. The advance given to Reagan, in a deal that included a book of speeches: a reported $5 million.

Thatcher's new home is a five-bedroom, neo-Georgian house in the suburb of Dulwich, about four miles from central London. Thatcher's daughter Carol predicts that her mother "will suffer decompression" out of office. When, for example, Carol reminded her parent that she had not set foot in a supermarket in nearly 12 years, Thatcher replied, "Of course I have. I have opened enough of them."

If Thatcher herself is no longer in fashion, perhaps she can be comforted by the fact that Thatcher mementos are. A limited edition of 1,000 Thatcher Toby jugs -- ceramic mugs shaped in a likeness of her wearing a three-cornered hat -- moved briskly at $200 each when they were introduced in 1989. Then came the poll tax early this year, and sales vanished. Once Thatcher resigned, however, the orders jumped again, obeying Thatcher's dictum that the marketplace should be allowed to dictate demand.