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The Siege

A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World

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The Siege

Written by: Ben Macintyre
Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
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About this listen

“For six days, it was the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London that riveted the world. . . . Macintyre’s superb reconstruction restores it to vivid, complex life.”—The Washington Post

A thrilling tick-tock recounting one of the most harrowing hostage situations and daring rescue attempts of our time—from the true-life espionage master and New York Times bestselling author of Operation Mincemeat and The Spy and the Traitor.

“[Ben Macintyre is] John le Carré’s nonfiction counterpart.”—The New York Times

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 listeners 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.

©2024 Ben Macintyre (P)2024 Random House Audio
20th Century Freedom & Security Military & War Espionage
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Excellent

That rare combination of a good story, very well written, strong narration and suspense. in my top 20.

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Excellent story telling of a complex topic

Very entertaining listen/read, I appreciate that a high-tech topic was discussed in understandable terms. My only suggestion to improve would be to discuss the projects in chronological order.

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Gripping

I have enjoyed all Ben MacIntyre’s books on World War II espionage, so knew I would probably like whatever else he wrote. This was quite a different subject for him, but still good. I did not have familiarity with this siege, though I know about the concurrent incident at the embassy in Tehran. This happening right in central London was quite something. So frightening and it went on so long. Fascinating to learn how they planned to save the hostages.

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