A request to Margaret Thatcher to look at “just one more paper” on the night of the Brighton bombing may just have saved her life.

One month after the blast in October 1984, the former Prime Minister talked of that terrible night – and how close she came to dying alongside five others.

Describing the half hour before the blast, Mrs Thatcher said she had been working on the key speech she was due to give to the Tory Party conference the next day.

When she finished, she handed the final pages to two female members of staff.

She thanked them for staying up and told them to go to bed as soon as they had finished.

“That was what I had intended doing myself, but then Robin Butler, my principal private secretary, said: ‘ I know you’re tired, but there is just one more paper you must do because they want the answer tomorrow.’

“So I sat down in the armchair with the window behind me and began reading.

“That’s when the bomb went off. The windows and curtain blew out into the street. There was a great whoosh of air and dust. I stood up and went towards the bedroom, but Denis was already coming out.

“The first instinct, I can tell you, when the bomb goes off, is to get close to an inside wall in case another goes off. So immediately we all went into the corridor to make sure the girls were all right.

“I could actually have been in the bathroom when it happened. It was badly damaged with part of the roof and tiles coming down.

“I think I might have survived but somehow feel I wouldn’t have delivered my speech so well.”

In the interview, Mrs Thatcher said she knew immediately that the explosion was caused by a bomb.

“There is no doubt about the sound of a bomb once you’ve heard one.

“Was I frightened? In a way, one was waiting for a second explosion and didn’t know where it would strike.

“I was more worried about other people, and where they were, than being frightened. And I was very, very conscious that we were in an acutely difficult situation and we must stay absolutely calm and think about the best thing to do.”

Asked whether the bombing had changed her attitude to life, Mrs Thatcher said: “Oh, yes. It’s infinitely more precious to me now.

“When something like that happens it alters your perspective. You’re not going to be worried or complain about silly, niggly things anymore.”