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, six heavily armed gunmen stormed the Iranian embassy in London, taking twenty-six hostages and plunging the city into a tense standoff that would last six harrowing days. As the world watched, the situation inside the embassy was a ticking time bomb, threatening to erupt into a deadly bloodbath at any moment.

Among the hostages was policeman Trevor Lock, who found himself caught in a nightmare he couldn’t have imagined. With a hidden gun in his jacket, Lock navigated the delicate balance between survival and resistance, drawing on reserves of courage he never knew he had. Meanwhile, the gunmen—each with their own motivations and backgrounds—were determined to force Britain to take their side in their fight against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, while being bankrolled by Saddam Hussein in a covert maneuver against Iran.

As negotiations dragged on and tensions soared, the SAS, Britain’s elite special forces, meticulously planned a high-risk rescue operation. Outside, rival protestors clashed, and intelligence agencies like MI6 and the CIA scrambled for any insight that could turn the tide. The pressure cooker reached its boiling point when the terrorists executed the embassy press attaché, prompting the SAS to storm the building in a daring raid that would become legendary.

In The Siege, Ben Macintyre draws from exclusive interviews and previously unseen documents to deliver a gripping minute-by-minute account of a hostage crisis that reverberated for decades, directly linking to the events leading up to 9/11. A true story of bravery, resilience, and the razor's edge between life and death. 📚❤️