Regulars at Mainstreet will know we’ve been keen to host this author for many, many years. So it was with great pleasure that we announced that the brilliant Ben Macintyre was going to be visiting us at the Tait Hall and coming to Mainstreet on Wed 18th September 2024. Bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor,  Agent Sonya and SAS Rogue Heroes among many others, Ben’s new book, The Siege, tells the remarkable behind the scenes story of the Iranian Embassy hostage drama in 1980.

It can be a mistake to meet your literary heroes – definitely not in this case. Ben gave a fascinating talk about his new book, packing so much into one hour, though his audience would have happily listened for another despite it being a glorious evening outside.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

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.

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.