The Siege
The Remarkable Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama
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The Siege
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Narrado por:
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Ben Macintyre
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De:
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Ben Macintyre
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Brought to you by Penguin.
From the author of Sunday Times #1 bestsellers COLDITZ, SAS: ROGUE HEROES and THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR . . .
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Drawing on unpublished source material, exclusive interviews with the SAS, and testimony from witnesses including hostages, negotiators, intelligence officers and the on-site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.
‘Macintyre does true-life espionage better than anyone else’ John Preston
'The pre-eminent historian of the secret world . . . His books have set the gold standard for accurate historical reporting, but read like heart-pounding thrillers' Mick Herron
'Masterly . . . it has never been recounted so pleasurably as it has been here' New York Times
Both Ben Macintyre’s penmanship and reading are excellent. The pace and integration of every angle and point of view made a good time line of the unfolding events.
I look forward to the next book.
Execellent Reasearch and writing
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After 5 days of stalling and on and off negotiations on political and police levels what followed was a dramatic and iconic military operation: a live-broadcasted assault on the embassy by the SAS, the British Army’s elite special forces unit. The media coverage was as extensive as it was unwanted, but impossible to avoid.
While Coronation Street aired uninterrupted, the final moments of the World Snooker Championship (ironically named the Embassy Championship after its sponsor, a tobacco brand) were disrupted. More than 14 million viewers worldwide were watching as the siege unfolded live. Needless to say, the BBC faced criticism and complaints for the decision (for deciding in favour of hostage rescue vs snooker!)— the "good old days" when consuming media was on a different plane altogether.
Historian Ben Macintyre delivers not only a riveting procedural account of the siege but also offers insight into the political and personal histories of those involved: the “terrorists,” the hostages, the police, and the SAS operatives. He writes with insight, compassion and humour, combining the bizarre with the tragic . His ability to show the human side of every character —without excusing or moralizing—is one of the book’s strongest points.
Macintyre has the narrative in hand and builds it up nicely towards the climax: Operation Nimrod, the SAS rescue mission. Though it lasted a mere 11 minutes—“roughly the time it takes to cook a hard-boiled egg”—its execution is described in intense detail. The 11 minutes takes more than an hour on the audiobook. It is quite a challenge to narrate a complex, multi-floor military operation from multiple perspectives (hostages, gunmen, commandos), all happening simultaneously. Yet he pulled it off, keeping the tension high and the storytelling crisp.
Macintyre has this gift for turning meticulously researched history into stories that read like thrillers. This is my third book by him After Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory & Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal, and on consideration the one enjoyed the most.
He narrates the audiobook himself and does a great job.
Highly recommended.
A gripping page-turner of a book!
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