Maggie Darling, the ‘true firebrand’ at Chancellor's side
Beside every successful Chancellor is a resilient wife. And they don't come tougher than Maggie Darling.
According to one of the most colourful passages in the Rawnsley book, she can out-swear the Prime Minister by a Scottish country mile.
"The f**king c**ts are trying to stitch up Alistair! The c**ts! I can't believe they're such c**ts!" she is quoted as saying on being told that Charlie Whelan and Damian McBride were bad-mouthing her husband.
Would the resident of Margaret Thatcher's old flat above 10 Downing Street really use such gutter language? A friend gravely doubts that the C-word would ever pass her lips, though says "f**king bastards" might just pop out.
Mrs Darling, a former journalist with the Daily Record and Glasgow Herald, moved full time to London when her husband became Chancellor. She revamped the run-down grace-and-favour apartment into a friendly kitchen offering bacon sandwiches in the morning and red wine in the evening.
Michelle Obama called her "a true firebrand" after they met last spring.
Like Sarah Brown, Mrs Darling has used her residence in Britain's most famous street to do good, opening the doors of No 11 to charities.
Mr Whelan and Mr McBride each deny that they attacked the Chancellor in summer 2008 after he admitted that the economic crisis would be the worst for 60 years.
