Mrs Thatcher was unimpressed, writing on her copy of the document "Thin".
Nevertheless by February 1981 it was clear that they could be sufficient to provoke a new miners' strike - backed by their allies, the steelworkers and the railwaymen.
At this point, Mrs Thatcher's trusted press secretary, Bernard Ingham, stepped in to warn her that they were trying to do "too much, too quickly".
At meetings on February 16 and 18, it became clear that the government was just not ready for a strike and the coal stocks could not withstand one.
"As Howell remembered the first meeting, Mrs Thatcher held up a copy of the Evening Standard which Mr Ingham brought in with the words, 'That's that, then, isn't it?' The headline proclaimed, 'Government dithers'," the book states.
"Mrs Thatcher said, 'Bring it to an end, David. Make the necessary concessions'. Without Cabinet discussion, she decided to give in."
Mr Howell said that while he resented her anger towards him for his handling of the matter, he believed she was right to "cut and run" as "we just weren't ready".
It was, however, a confrontation postponed. The showdown with the NUM had to await her second term following her 1983 general election victory.
