FROM THE NO. 1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SAS: ROGUE HEROES AND THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR. DISCOVER THE STORY OF THE SIX DAYS THAT SHOOK THE NATION!
April 30, 1980. Six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian embassy in London, taking 26 people hostage.
A tense six-day siege ensued as millions gathered around screens across the country to witness the longest news flash in British history. Six days in which police negotiators and psychiatrists sought a bloodless end to the standoff, and the SAS laid plans for a daring rescue mission.
Drawing on unpublished source material, exclusive interviews, and witness testimony, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre tells the dramatic story in full for the first time – from the years and weeks of build-up on both sides, to the minute-by-minute of the rescue.
The Siege is the remarkable story of what really happened on those fateful six days, of a moment that forever changed the way the nation thought about the SAS, and itself, forever.
'Masterly . . . it has never been recounted so pleasurably as it has been here' New York Times
‘Macintyre does true-life espionage better than anyone else’ John Preston
Ben Macintyre, Sunday Times bestseller, August 2023
Ben Macintyre has established himself as the pre-eminent 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
Macintyre has a knack for finding the most fascinating storylines in history -- David Grann author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon
Macintyre writes with the diligence and insight of a journalist, and the panache of a born storyteller. -- John Banville 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 A masterful big-picture narrative, drawing on interviews, news archives and unpublished personal memoirs by those who survived.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 -- Colin Freeman 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
Gripping…a cracking procedural...it’s another hit for [Macintyre]…a remarkably immersive account of what happened…Macintyre’s superb reconstruction restores it to vivid, complex life Washington Post
A master storyteller…Macintyre adds real value to our understanding of what occurred in those six days with his deeply humane book. He is particularly compelling in the portraits he puts together of the dramatis personae Wall Street Journal
Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Colditz, Agent Sonya, SAS: 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 SAS: Rogue Heroes
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