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The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World
Win a free print copy of this book!
5 days and 07:20:24
12 copies available
U.S. only
A thrilling tick-tock recounting one of the most harrowing hostage situations and daring rescue attempts of our time—from true-life espionage master and New York Times bestselling author of Operation Mincemeat and The Spy and the Traitor Ben Macintyre.
As the American hostage crisis in Iran boiled into its seventh month in the spring of 1980, six heavily armed gunman barged into the Iranian embassy in London, taking twenty-six hostages. What followed over the next six days was an increasingly tense standoff, one that threatened at any moment to spill into a bloodbath.
Policeman Trevor Lock was supposed to have gone to the theater that night. Instead, he found himself overpowered and whisked into the embassy. The terrorists never noticed the gun hidden in his jacket. The drama that ensued would force him to find reserves of courage he didn’t know he had. The gunmen themselves were hardly one-dimensional—all Arabs, some highly educated, who hoped to force Britain to take their side in their independence battle against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Behind the scenes lurked the brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who had bankrolled the whole affair as a salvo against Iran.
As police negotiators pressed the gunmen, rival protestors clashed violently outside the embassy, and as MI6 and the CIA scrambled for intelligence, Britain’s special forces strike team, the SAS, laid plans for a dangerous rescue mission. Inside, Lock and his fellow hostages used all the cunning they possessed to outwit and outflank their captors. Finally, on the sixth day, after the terrorists executed the embassy press attaché and dumped his body on the front doorstep, the SAS raid began, sparking a deadly high-stakes climax.
A story of ordinary men and women under immense pressure, The Siege takes readers minute-by-thrilling-minute through an event that would echo across the next two decades and provide a direct historical link to the tragedy on 9/11. Drawing on exclusive interviews and a wealth of never-before-seen files, Macintyre brilliantly reconstructs a week in which every day minted a new hero and every second spelled the potential for doom.
As the American hostage crisis in Iran boiled into its seventh month in the spring of 1980, six heavily armed gunman barged into the Iranian embassy in London, taking twenty-six hostages. What followed over the next six days was an increasingly tense standoff, one that threatened at any moment to spill into a bloodbath.
Policeman Trevor Lock was supposed to have gone to the theater that night. Instead, he found himself overpowered and whisked into the embassy. The terrorists never noticed the gun hidden in his jacket. The drama that ensued would force him to find reserves of courage he didn’t know he had. The gunmen themselves were hardly one-dimensional—all Arabs, some highly educated, who hoped to force Britain to take their side in their independence battle against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Behind the scenes lurked the brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who had bankrolled the whole affair as a salvo against Iran.
As police negotiators pressed the gunmen, rival protestors clashed violently outside the embassy, and as MI6 and the CIA scrambled for intelligence, Britain’s special forces strike team, the SAS, laid plans for a dangerous rescue mission. Inside, Lock and his fellow hostages used all the cunning they possessed to outwit and outflank their captors. Finally, on the sixth day, after the terrorists executed the embassy press attaché and dumped his body on the front doorstep, the SAS raid began, sparking a deadly high-stakes climax.
A story of ordinary men and women under immense pressure, The Siege takes readers minute-by-thrilling-minute through an event that would echo across the next two decades and provide a direct historical link to the tragedy on 9/11. Drawing on exclusive interviews and a wealth of never-before-seen files, Macintyre brilliantly reconstructs a week in which every day minted a new hero and every second spelled the potential for doom.
400 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication September 10, 2024
About the author
Ben Macintyre
35 books3,402 followersBen Macintyre is a writer-at-large for The Times (U.K.) and the bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor, A Spy Among Friends, Double Cross, Operation Mincemeat, Agent Zigzag, and Rogue Heroes, among other books. Macintyre has also written and presented BBC documentaries of his work.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 30, 2024
Oh, sure, the book jacket may tell you that Ben Macintyre's The Siege is about the 1980 hostage crisis at the Iranian embassy in London. However, this is selling the story short. You see, I have read many of Macintyre's books, and I can say without hesitation that they are always about people. Events just happen to occur near those people. The Siege is no different.
For those who don't remember (like me because I wasn't alive yet, and I don't get to say that much anymore), terrorists took over the Iranian embassy in London which included 26 hostages. I won't get too detailed about the terrorists as their point of view is rather surprising. Macintyre takes his time as he slowly peels back the layers of the story around the hostages, terrorists, and the people trying to bring this crisis to a peaceful end. I can't stress enough how masterfully each person is revealed as a flesh and blood person regardless of which side they are on. Some people would prove themselves heroes and others villains.
Something else I have found in all of Macintyre's books is humor. I don't know how, but the author continues to find sly humor in the darkest of places. His last book, Prisoners of the Castle, was closer to Hogan's Heroes than anyone would have expected even though it is the true story of captured Allied POWs. The Siege isn't laugh-out-loud funny, but Macintyre lightens the mood whenever possible without cheapening the drama around the story.
It would not be a spoiler to say that the final act of this story is heavy on action. I appreciated the way it is handled in the book. Most chapters are about the same size except for the last one which covers everything that happens during the (to quote the subtitle) "special-forces operation that shocked the world." Instead of breaking up the story with needless cliffhangers, the narrative just takes off until everything goes quiet.
The book is simply fantastic, and you should read it.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Crown Publishing.)
For those who don't remember (like me because I wasn't alive yet, and I don't get to say that much anymore), terrorists took over the Iranian embassy in London which included 26 hostages. I won't get too detailed about the terrorists as their point of view is rather surprising. Macintyre takes his time as he slowly peels back the layers of the story around the hostages, terrorists, and the people trying to bring this crisis to a peaceful end. I can't stress enough how masterfully each person is revealed as a flesh and blood person regardless of which side they are on. Some people would prove themselves heroes and others villains.
Something else I have found in all of Macintyre's books is humor. I don't know how, but the author continues to find sly humor in the darkest of places. His last book, Prisoners of the Castle, was closer to Hogan's Heroes than anyone would have expected even though it is the true story of captured Allied POWs. The Siege isn't laugh-out-loud funny, but Macintyre lightens the mood whenever possible without cheapening the drama around the story.
It would not be a spoiler to say that the final act of this story is heavy on action. I appreciated the way it is handled in the book. Most chapters are about the same size except for the last one which covers everything that happens during the (to quote the subtitle) "special-forces operation that shocked the world." Instead of breaking up the story with needless cliffhangers, the narrative just takes off until everything goes quiet.
The book is simply fantastic, and you should read it.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Crown Publishing.)
July 24, 2024
"Who dares wins" says the SAS. Ben Macintyre dares to tackle, with verve and detail, a contemporary half-classified tale of derring-do that many people saw live on TV. And he wins. Not many authors would.
August 27, 2024
This book is the reason I love all things History and Non-Fiction. I received an ARC of this book as an accident from the publisher, and though the title didn't have me hooked at all, I figured I would give it a shot, and I'm so happy I did.
Demigods don't exist, but ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances are what makes history so fascinating. I had never herd of the 1980 Iranian Embassy Hostage Crisis in London, which happened while the U.S. crisis was occurring, and is much more known in the American zeitgeist. I was fully expecting this to be a tale of good-guy cops v. the evil terrorist, but this story is much deeper than that. Macintyre's writing transported me into the minds of all parties involved - the hostages, the hostage-takers, the police/military, the media, the government and the populace. Everyone is human, both sympathetic and flawed, not black and white super-heroes and villains. The relationships that were developed between the hostages and hostage-takers was particularly moving at times. Though you don't walk away condoning the acts, Macintyre lays the groundwork to help you understand how these men got to this desperate point.
As an added bonus, this story is honestly funny at times. The detail about Nibbles, the schoolroom gerbil the police were asked to take care of while they occupied the building had me smiling, as did the inclusion of the Snooker World Championship while the climax of the siege was taking place. These inclusions show Macintyre's writing prowess by providing levity without distracting from the story.
I will definitely be getting more books by this author.
Demigods don't exist, but ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances are what makes history so fascinating. I had never herd of the 1980 Iranian Embassy Hostage Crisis in London, which happened while the U.S. crisis was occurring, and is much more known in the American zeitgeist. I was fully expecting this to be a tale of good-guy cops v. the evil terrorist, but this story is much deeper than that. Macintyre's writing transported me into the minds of all parties involved - the hostages, the hostage-takers, the police/military, the media, the government and the populace. Everyone is human, both sympathetic and flawed, not black and white super-heroes and villains. The relationships that were developed between the hostages and hostage-takers was particularly moving at times. Though you don't walk away condoning the acts, Macintyre lays the groundwork to help you understand how these men got to this desperate point.
As an added bonus, this story is honestly funny at times. The detail about Nibbles, the schoolroom gerbil the police were asked to take care of while they occupied the building had me smiling, as did the inclusion of the Snooker World Championship while the climax of the siege was taking place. These inclusions show Macintyre's writing prowess by providing levity without distracting from the story.
I will definitely be getting more books by this author.
August 29, 2024
Disclosure: huge “fan” of the author. Won the book pre publication here on Goodreads.
Have tried about 5 times now to get into the book. I’m having a hard time and decided to wait a few months. I even took it camping with me where there were almost NO distractions in order to force me to continue, but put it down and watched for birds, squirrels and chipmunks instead.
I guess the “problem” for me is that there are way too many people/characters involved, and yes I know that that’s NOT something the author can control…it is what it is. I had to keep going back to the who’s who page, and between jumping back and forth, kept thinking how I was bored.
Have tried about 5 times now to get into the book. I’m having a hard time and decided to wait a few months. I even took it camping with me where there were almost NO distractions in order to force me to continue, but put it down and watched for birds, squirrels and chipmunks instead.
I guess the “problem” for me is that there are way too many people/characters involved, and yes I know that that’s NOT something the author can control…it is what it is. I had to keep going back to the who’s who page, and between jumping back and forth, kept thinking how I was bored.
July 8, 2024
For me, this is Macintyre's best book so far, and I think it's partly because he was around when the events happened. As is usual with his writing, we are presented with a vivid insight into a different era; the fax machine was yet to arrive as a tool of communication; Thatcher was an untested political leader. Much of the book deals with the SAS; anyone who enjoyed Rogue Heroes will love this work. However, Macintyre's report offers far more width, delving into the psychology of captor and hostage, captor and negotiator. Acutely relevant, especially regarding the contemporary carnage in Gaza and Ukraine, is the "other side of the story," why people take up arms and kill. Thus Macintyre documents the reasons for the siege and, although the book details an intensely British crisis long ago, Americans should heed an underlying message: It's just a matter of time . . .
June 13, 2024
The cover of this one really drew me in and as soon as I saw it I really wanted to give it a read. I’d never read a Ben Macintyre and it certainly won’t be my last, and I had also never really looked into the siege of 1980. From start to finish I could not put this down and it has now become one of my favourite books of 2024. It’s so easy to read, very insightful and just so interesting. Bens writing style is fantastic and I really felt like I was taken back to 1980 and fully involved in this remarkable story. A must read for 2024!
August 28, 2024
Excellent book.
Gripping account of a fantastic story. Reads like a fiction story that happens to be true. Couldn’t put it down.
Got this as a #GoodreadsGiveaway
Gripping account of a fantastic story. Reads like a fiction story that happens to be true. Couldn’t put it down.
Got this as a #GoodreadsGiveaway
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews