News & Reviews
The Seige by Ben Macintyre
In minute-by-minute, fast-paced, riveting detail, Ben Macintyre, tells the story of the seizure of the Iranian embassy in London in April 1980, a crisis largely over shadowed by the Americans being held hostage in Tehran at the time. The London hostage-takers were an idealistic (and, it seems, rather hapless) lot, who wanted to bring the plight of ‘Arabistan’ to the world’s attention.
In his signature style, Macintyre relies on secret government documents, private journals (kept by the hostage-takers and the hostages), unpublished memoirs, and interviews (with intelligence officials who don’t noramlly talk to journalists).
The crisis introduced the SAS to the public; Rebecca West had a front-row seat, living next door in the wealthy London neighbourhood; PM Margaret Thatcher demonstrates why she is the “Iron Lady;” and Macintyre secures his reputation as without equal in writing about spies, espionage, military operations (The Spy and the Traitor; A Spy Among Friends; Operation Mincemeat).
— Ray
