The Siege
A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World
Checking Availibility...Description
One of Indigo's Top 10 History Books of 2024
A brilliant, seat-of-your-pants hostage-taking and daring SAS rescue mission of the Iran Embassy in London in 1980, this is Ben Macintyre at the very height of his story-telling powers.
On April 30, 1980, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian embassy on Prince's Gate, overlooking Hyde Park in London. There, they took 26 hostages, including embassy staff, visitors, and three British citizens. A tense six-day siege ensued--all on television, over a Bank Holiday weekend--in which police negotiators and psychiatrists sought a bloodless end to the standoff, while the SAS laid plans for a daring rescue mission: Operation Nimrod.
This mission marked a fundamental turning point in global history, when Middle Eastern terrorism arrived in the West. Britain had experienced IRA terrorism before, but never an international terrorist incident on this scale. It was a precursor to the brutal Iran-Iraq War that would follow, in which millions perished. Yet there exists to this day no full account of the week-long siege and gripping rescue.
Drawing on interviews with police, hostages, terrorists and key SAS figures, and cutting through the sensationalism and misinformation, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre (author of Sunday Times #1s Colditz, The Spy and the Traitor and SAS: Rogue Heroes) goes deep into the archives with exclusive access to tell the story of what really happened and give the first definitive account of a moment that forever changed the way the nation thought about the SAS--and itself.
About this Author
Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Colditz, Agent Sonya, Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat, and A Spy Among Friends. He is a columnist and Associate Editor at The Times, and has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. Several of his books have been made into films and television series, including Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends, and Rogue Heroes.
Reviews
One of Indigo's Top 10 History Books of 2024
Praise for The Siege:
"For six days, it was the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London that riveted the world . . . Macintyre's new book is a gripping retelling of what happened. [His] superb reconstruction restores it to vivid, complex life . . . A cracking procedural. It's another hit."--The Washington Post
"Macintyre . . . is a master storyteller. . . . He is expert at gathering and collating, then shaping and deploying, vast quantities of information, whether from government records, private archives or interviews he conducts himself. . . . There are numerous accounts already published of this six-day siege[,] and yet, for all the wealth of information already out there, Mr. Macintyre adds real value to our understanding of what occurred in those six days with his deeply humane and encyclopedic book."--Wall Street Journal
"Nerve-wracking menace, unlikely sympathies, and a daring rescue mark this rousing saga of a notorious terrorist incident . . . Macintyre's narrative is cinematic in its bloody climax . . . and even more so in its tense buildup. He paints the embassy occupation as a psychological pressure cooke. . . . Without demonizing those involved, Macintyre provides a nuanced, perceptive analysis of the intense emotions roiling a high-stakes standoff."--Publishers Weekly
"Ben Macintyre has established himself as the preeminent historian of the secret world, his work opening doors most of us didn't know were there. His books have set the gold standard for accurate historical reporting, but read like heart-pounding thrillers."--Mick Herron, bestselling author of Slow Horses
"Macintyre writes with the diligence and insight of a journalist, and the panache of a born storyteller." --The Guardian
"The definitive account of what happened . . . so gripping that I literally could not put the book down." --Jack Straw, Independent
"Unforgettable" --Robert McCrum, Independent
"A fresh and gripping read . . . A masterful big-picture narrative, drawing on interviews, news archives and unpublished personal memoirs by those who survived. Macintyre preserves the hostages' story in magnificent, humane style - and offers another swashbuckling tribute to their rescuers" --Telegraph
"There have been plenty of books written in the aftermath and intervening years, most claiming to be the "true story", but none as exhaustive or gripping as Ben Macintyre's The Siege" --Observer
"In The Siege Macintyre has access to SAS sources including, in one of his customary coups, Major Hector Gullan, who planned the raid. Yet he gives greater room to the feelings of the hostages, the shifting emotions of their captors and the interplay between the two groups. Macintyre's achievement is that his account is the more gripping for it." --Sunday Times
Praise for Ben Macintyre:
"John le Carre's nonfiction counterpart."--The New York Times
"Macintyre has a knack for finding the most fascinating story lines in history."--David Grann
"One of the most gifted espionage writers around."--Annie Jacobsen
"Macintyre is a supremely gifted storyteller. . . . His books are absurdly entertaining."--The Boston Globe
"[Ben] Macintyre at once exalts and subverts the myths of spy craft."--The New Yorker
"Macintyre is fastidious about tradecraft details. . . . [He] has become the preeminent popular chronicler of British intelligence history because he understands the essence of the business."--David Ignatius, The Washington Post
"Macintyre writes with novelistic flair."--Entertainment Weekly
If the product is in stock at the store nearest you, we suggest you call ahead to have it set aside for you, or you may place an order online and choose in-store pickup.
