Praise

Praise for The Siege

“The Siege [is a] masterly account of the weeklong [Iranian hostage] ordeal. . . . It has never been recounted so pleasurably as it has been here. As with all of Macintyre’s books, The Siege is threaded with complex side characters and sharp subplots.”—Azadeh Moaveni, The New York Times

“For six days, it was the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London that riveted the world . . . Macintyre’s new book is a gripping retelling of what happened. [His] superb reconstruction restores it to vivid, complex life . . . A cracking procedural. It’s another hit.”—The Washington Post

“Macintyre . . . is a master storyteller. . . . He is expert at gathering and collating, then shaping and deploying, vast quantities of information, whether from government records, private archives or interviews he conducts himself. . . . There are numerous accounts already published of this six-day siege[,] and yet, for all the wealth of information already out there, Mr. Macintyre adds real value to our understanding of what occurred in those six days with his deeply humane and encyclopedic book.”—Wall Street Journal

“Nerve-wracking menace, unlikely sympathies, and a daring rescue mark this rousing saga of a notorious terrorist incident . . . Macintyre’s narrative is cinematic in its bloody climax . . . and even more so in its tense buildup. He paints the embassy occupation as a psychological pressure cooke. . . . Without demonizing those involved, Macintyre provides a nuanced, perceptive analysis of the intense emotions roiling a high-stakes standoff.”—Publishers Weekly

“Ben Macintyre has established himself as the preeminent historian of the secret world, his work opening doors most of us didn’t know were there. His books have set the gold standard for accurate historical reporting, but read like heart-pounding thrillers.”—Mick Herron, bestselling author of Slow Horses

“McIntyre makes a good case in closing for considering the hostage crisis the opening shots of the eight-year Iraq-Iran War, an appalling bloodletting in which more than a million soldiers died. A capable work of true-crime writing that connects many subsequent geopolitical dots.”―Kirkus Reviews



Praise for Ben Macintyre

“John le Carré’s nonfiction counterpart.”—The New York Times

“Macintyre has a knack for finding the most fascinating story lines in history.”—David Grann

“One of the most gifted espionage writers around.”—Annie Jacobsen

“Macintyre is a supremely gifted storyteller. . . . His books are absurdly entertaining.”—The Boston Globe

“[Ben] Macintyre at once exalts and subverts the myths of spy craft.”—The New Yorker

“Macintyre is fastidious about tradecraft details. . . . [He] has become the preeminent popular chronicler of British intelligence history because he understands the essence of the business.”—David Ignatius, The Washington Post