The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World By Ben Macintyre

In the spring of 1980, as the American hostage crisis in Iran entered its seventh month, a new and terrifying drama unfolded in London. Six heavily armed gunmen stormed the Iranian embassy, taking twenty-six hostages and igniting a six-day standoff that would grip the world. What began as a desperate bid for independence by the gunmen quickly spiraled into a harrowing ordeal that threatened to end in bloodshed.

Among the hostages was Policeman Trevor Lock, who had been on duty when the attack occurred. Unbeknownst to the terrorists, Lock had a hidden gun in his jacket, a secret weapon that would become crucial as tensions escalated. While the gunmen, educated Arabs seeking to pressure Britain into supporting their cause against Ayatollah Khomeini, played a dangerous game, Lock and his fellow captives used every ounce of wit and courage to survive.

Outside the embassy, chaos reigned. Rival protestors clashed violently, MI6 and the CIA scrambled for intelligence, and Britain’s elite SAS strike team meticulously planned a daring rescue. As the days dragged on, the situation grew increasingly perilous. The tension reached a breaking point when the terrorists executed a hostage and dumped his body on the embassy's steps, forcing the SAS to launch a high-stakes raid.

In The Siege, Ben Macintyre, acclaimed author of Operation Mincemeat and The Spy and the Traitor, delivers a gripping, minute-by-minute account of this extraordinary event. Drawing from exclusive interviews and unseen files, Macintyre reconstructs the dramatic week that forever altered the landscape of international terrorism, linking it directly to the tragedies of 9/11. This is a story of ordinary people thrust into an extraordinary situation, where every decision could mean life or death.