From the author of _Sunday Times_ \#1 bestsellers _Colditz_, _SAS: Rogue Heroes_ and _The Spy and the Traitor_ comes another masterpiece on the greatest SAS hostage drama. We're delighted to be welcoming booksellers and readers favourite Ben Macintyre to Edinburgh, where he'll join us to celebrate publication of _The Siege._ Join us in giving him a warm welcome!
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Drawing on unpublished source material, exclusive interviews with the SAS, and testimony from witnesses including hostages, negotiators, intelligence officers and the on-site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.
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_.