The Siege

by Ben Macintyre

£25.00

History

Hardback

9780241675670

Published by Penguin Books Ltd

Published September 2024

Books > History

The Remarkable Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama

On April 30, 1980, six heavily armed gunmen burst into the Iranian embassy on Princes 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 as millions gathered around screens across the country to witness the longest news flash in British television history, in which police negotiators and psychiatrists sought a bloodless end to the standoff, while the SAS – hitherto an organisation shrouded in secrecy – laid plans for a daring rescue mission: Operation Nimrod.

Drawing on unpublished source material, exclusive interviews with the SAS, and testimony from witnesses including hostages, negotiators, intelligence officers and the on-site psychiatrist, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre takes readers on a gripping journey from the years and weeks of build-up on both sides, to the minute-by-minute account of the siege and rescue.

Recreating the dramatic conversations between negotiators and hostages, the cutting-edge intelligence work happening behind-the-scenes, and the media frenzy around this moment of international significance, The Siege is the remarkable story of what really happened on those fateful six days, and the first full account of a moment that forever changed the way the nation thought about the SAS – and itself.

A Suspicion of Spies by Tim Spicer | 9781999589158

A Suspicion of Spies

Tim Spicer

£10.99

The Lost Paths by Jack Cornish | 9781405951296

The Lost Paths

Jack Cornish

£10.99

The Cleopatras by Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones | 9781472295187

The Cleopatras

Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

£12.99

Agent Zo by Clare Mulley | 9781399601085

Agent Zo

Clare Mulley

£12.99

John and Paul by Ian Leslie | 9780571376117

John and Paul

Ian Leslie

£25.00

This Earthly Globe by Andrea di Robilant | 9780857891815

This Earthly Globe

Andrea di Robilant

£12.99