The double agent who changed the course of history | Ben Macintyre

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Features

The Remarkable Story of the Greatest SAS Hostage Drama

The Siege

‘Unforgettable’ Independent 
 
‘Fresh and gripping’ Telegraph 
 
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
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. 
 
Drawing on unpublished source material, exclusive interviews with the SAS, and testimony from witnesses including hostages, negotiators, intelligence officers and the on-site psychiatrist, bestselling historian 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. 
 
'The pre-eminent historian of the secret world . . . His books have set the gold standard for accurate historical reporting, but read like heart-pounding thrillers' Mick Herron 
 
‘Macintyre does true-life espionage better than anyone else’ John Preston 
 
BEN MACINTYRE'S NEXT BOOK, REDWOOD, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW

Ben Macintyre has established himself as the pre-eminent 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.

Macintyre has a knack for finding the most fascinating storylines in history

author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon

Macintyre writes with the diligence and insight of a journalist, and the panache of a born storyteller.

The definitive account of what happened . . . so gripping that I literally could not put the book down.

A fresh and gripping read . . . A masterful big-picture narrative, drawing on interviews, news archives and unpublished personal memoirs by those who survived. Macintyre preserves the hostages’ story in magnificent, humane style – and offers another swashbuckling tribute to their rescuers

There have been plenty of books written in the aftermath and intervening years, most claiming to be the "true story", but none as exhaustive or gripping as Ben Macintyre's The Siege

In The Siege Macintyre has access to SAS sources including, in one of his customary coups, Major Hector Gullan, who planned the raid. Yet he gives greater room to the feelings of the hostages, the shifting emotions of their captors and the interplay between the two groups. Macintyre’s achievement is that his account is the more gripping for it.

Gripping…a cracking procedural...it’s another hit for [Macintyre]…a remarkably immersive account of what happened…Macintyre’s superb reconstruction restores it to vivid, complex life

A master storyteller…Macintyre adds real value to our understanding of what occurred in those six days with his deeply humane book. He is particularly compelling in the portraits he puts together of the dramatis personae

Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Colditz, Agent Sonya, SAS: Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. He is a columnist and Associate Editor at The Times, and has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. Several of his books have been made into films and television series, including Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS: Rogue Heroes.

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. 
 
Drawing on unpublished source material, exclusive interviews with the SAS, and testimony from witnesses including hostages, negotiators, intelligence officers and the on-site psychiatrist, bestselling historian 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.

Prisoners of the Castle

Colditz

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER - AND PERFECT GIFT FOR HISTORY BUFFS! 
 
'A master at setting the pulse racing' Daily Mail 
'A fine feat of storytelling . . . will surely become the last word on the subject' Telegraph 
_____________________________ 
 
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SAS: ROGUE HEROES 
 
Colditz Castle: a forbidding Gothic tower on a hill in Nazi Germany. You may have heard about the prisoners and their daring and desperate attempts to escape, but that's only part of the real story. 
 
In Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre takes us inside the walls of the most infamous prison in history to meet the real men behind the legends. Heroes and bullies, lovers and spies, captors and prisoners living cheek-by-jowl for years in a thrilling game of cat and mouse - and all determined to escape by any means necessary. 
 
Deeply researched and full of incredible stories, this is a tale of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances - and will change how you think about Colditz forever. 
_____________________________ 
 
'Like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised' Spectator 
'Every Ben Macintyre book is a treat' The Tablet 
 
BEN MACINTYRE'S NEXT BOOK, REDWOOD, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW 
 
Sunday Times bestseller, November 2022

A fine feat of storytelling . . . will surely become the last word on the subject

Like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised . . . rich in humour and quirky detail . . . another compelling narrative

Nuanced and gripping . . . told with sensitivity and insight, with an eye for telling detail

Every Ben Macintyre book is a treat

Entertaining yet objective and often moving

Macintyre's genius has long been to excavate the nuance, subtlety and ambiguity beneath the myths he explores . . . remarkable

Another fine history . . . His unerring eye for the telling detail that can illuminate a greater story is apparent in Colditz

Macintyre so seamlessly fuses so many different accounts that their compilation creates something more profound than a simple escape yarn: a biography of the prison itself and the world detainees built there

Macintyre recreates the daring escape stories with punchy flair . . . a lively page-turner

My book of the year . . . a masterful history of Colditz. It's absurdly readable (and at times just absurd) as well as being informative, hilarious and deeply moving

Colditz Castle: a forbidding Gothic tower on a hill in Nazi Germany. You may have heard about the prisoners and their daring and desperate attempts to escape, but that's only part of the real story. In Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre takes us inside the walls of the most infamous prison in history to meet the real men behind the legends. 
 
Heroes and bullies, lovers and spies, captors and prisoners living cheek-by-jowl for years in a thrilling game of cat and mouse - and all determined to escape by any means necessary. Deeply researched and full of incredible stories, this is a tale of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances - and will change how you think about Colditz forever.

Rogue Heroes

THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER! ANYONE WHO WATCHED THE BBC SERIES WILL LOVE THIS GIFT! 
 
THE BOOK BEHIND THE HIT BBC SERIES SAS: ROGUE HEROES, STARRING CONNOR SWINDELLS, JACK O'CONNELL, ALFIE ALLEN AND DOMINIC WEST 
 
'A master at setting the pulse racing' Daily Mail 
________________ 
 
In the summer of 1941, at the height of the war in the Western Desert, a bored and eccentric young officer, David Stirling, has a vision for a new kind of war: attacking the enemy where they least expect it - from behind their own lines. 
 
Despite the intense opposition of many in British High Command, Winston Churchill personally gives Stirling permission to recruit the toughest, brightest and most ruthless soldiers he can find. And so begins the most celebrated and mysterious military organisation in the world: the SAS. 
 
With unprecedented access to the SAS secret files, unseen footage and exclusive interviews with its founder members, SAS: Rogue Heroes tells the remarkable story behind an extraordinary fighting force, and the immense cost of making it a reality. 
________________ 
 
'Thorough and highly entertaining. It would be nigh on impossible to praise it too highly' Daily Express 
 
'Impeccably researched, superbly told - by far the best book on the SAS in World War II' Antony Beevor 
 
'Told with deceptive brilliance . . . one the finest books of its kind' Evening Standard 
 
BEN MACINTYRE'S NEXT BOOK, REDWOOD, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW 
 
Sunday Times bestseller, February 2023

Such a well-written, but also just informative, deeply detailed account of all of these guys’ lives within the SAS during that time.

Jack Barton, star of the BBC series SAS Rogue Heroes

In the summer of 1941, at the height of the war in the Western Desert, a bored and eccentric young officer, David Stirling, has a vision for a new kind of war: attacking the enemy where they least expect it - from behind their own lines. 
 
Despite the intense opposition of many in British High Command, Winston Churchill personally gives Stirling permission to recruit the toughest, brightest and most ruthless soldiers he can find. And so begins the most celebrated and mysterious military organisation in the world: the SAS. 
 
With unprecedented access to the SAS secret files, unseen footage and exclusive interviews with its founder members, SAS: Rogue Heroes tells the remarkable story behind an extraordinary fighting force, and the immense cost of making it a reality.

Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy

Agent Sonya

From the bestselling author of The Spy and The Traitor

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER 
 
Discover the incredible true story of WW2's most extraordinary spy - from the bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor. 
 
'His best book yet' The Times 
________________ 
 
From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, to preventing nuclear war (or so she believed) by stealing the science of atomic weaponry from Britain to give to Moscow, Ursula Kuczynski Burton conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century. 
 
Born to a German Jewish family, as Ursula grew, so did the Nazis' power. A fanatical opponent of the fascism that ravaged her homeland, she was drawn to communism as a young woman, motivated by the promise of a fair and peaceful society. She eventually became a spymaster, saboteur, bomb-maker and secret agent. 
 
In Agent Sonya, Britain's most acclaimed historian vividly reveals the fascinating tale of a life that would change the course of history. Classic Ben Macintyre - a gripping ride, based on meticulous research, that reads like a novel - this is the greatest spy story never told. 
________________ 
 
'Macintyre has found a real-life heroine worthy of his gifts as John le Carré's nonfiction counterpart' New York Times 
 
'This book is classic Ben Macintyre . . . quirky human details enliven every page' Clare Mulley, Spectator 
 
'She is the strongest character of all in Macintyre's bestselling series of wartime tales . . . I raced through the pages to keep up with the plot' Julian Glover, Evening Standard 
 
 
BEN MACINTYRE'S NEXT BOOK, REDWOOD, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW

Macintyre does true-life espionage better than anyone else

Think John le Carré at his early best - but fact not fiction

This impeccably researched account of her double life spans continents and is brilliantly compelling

Macintyre's page-turner is a dazzling portrait of a flawed yet driven individual who risked everything (including her children) for the cause

The best true spy story I have ever read

John le Carré on 'The Spy and the Traitor'

Thrilling...Macintyre will have you hooked to her life's every twist and turn

Macintyre has found a real-life heroine worthy of his gifts as John le Carré's nonfiction counterpart

This book is classic Ben Macintyre...quirky human details enliven every page... it is Macintyre's own vivid retelling of her perilous professional, personal and political life that make Agent Sonya such an accessible spy story.

He has the unerring gift of uncovering those astonishing truths that make even the best novelists of espionage seem both earthbound and artificial in comparison

He...spins gloriously through one of the most extraordinary private lives of the 20th century

In Agent Sonya, Macintyre has pulled off his most remarkable trick: he leaves us admiring, and even cheering for, the woman at the heart of his story, someone who not only wanted to destroy our democracy but helped Russia get a nuclear bomb. She is the strongest character of all in Macintyre's bestselling series of wartime tales... I raced through the pages to keep up with the plot

Ursula Kuczynski Burton was a spymaster, saboteur, bomb-maker and secret agent. Codenamed 'Agent Sonya', her story has never been told - until now. 
 
Born to a German Jewish family, as Ursula grew, so did the Nazis' power. As a fanatical opponent of the fascism that ravaged her homeland, Ursula was drawn to communism as a young woman, motivated by the promise of a fair and peaceful society. 
 
From planning an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, to spying on the Japanese in Manchuria, to preventing nuclear war (or so she believed) by stealing the science of atomic weaponry from Britain to give to Moscow, Ursula conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the twentieth century. 
 
In Agent Sonya, Britain's most acclaimed historian Ben Macintyre delivers an exhilarating tale that's as fast-paced as any fiction. It is the incredible story of one spy's life, a life that would alter the course of history . . .

The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

The Spy and the Traitor

THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
An exciting Cold War story about a KGB double agent, by one of Britain's greatest historians and the ultimate gift for anyone who loves a good spy thriller! 
 
'The best true spy story I have ever read' John le Carré 
________________ 
 
On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket. 
 
The man was a spy. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia. So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying. 
 
Ben Macintyre reveals a tale of espionage, betrayal and raw courage that changed the course of the Cold War forever . . . 
________________ 
 
'The world's most important spy since the Second World War. Mercilessly gripping' Sunday Times 
 
'Extraordinary. His best book yet' John Preston, Evening Standard 
 
'A remarkable story of one man's courage' The Times, Book of the Week 
 
BEN MACINTYRE'S NEXT BOOK, REDWOOD, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW 
 
Ben Macintyre, Sunday Times bestseller, August 2023

An incredible true life spy story...Every word ramps up the tension as you're drawn deeper into the danger

If any spy writer were to put it in a novel, it would not be believed. But, blow by blow, trick by trick, it is all in Macintyre's book

He writes like a novelist. One of the last chapters is as tense as any thriller. No wonder le Carré liked it

[A] captivating espionage tale. In a feat of real authorial dexterity, Macintyre accurately portrays the long-game banality of spycraft-the lead time and persistence in planning-with such clarity and propulsive verve that the book often feels like a thriller. Macintyre has produced a timely and insightful page-turner.

Meticulously researched, splendidly told, immensely entertaining and often very moving

Impeccably researched, superbly told - by far the best book on the SAS in World War II

Thrilling. Ben Macintyre is the ideal narrator

Thorough and highly entertaining. It would be nigh on impossible to praise it too highly

On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket. 
 
The man was a spy. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia. So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying. Ben Macintyre reveals a tale of espionage, betrayal and raw courage that changed the course of the Cold War forever. . .

Ben Macintyre

The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy

The year is 1981. Tehran is in violent turmoil in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. The Soviets are planning to overthrow the Ayatollah’s fledgling Islamist regime. If they do so, one response from America – unknown to the public – would be to use nuclear weapons. This is the story of how at the height of the Cold War, one mysterious double agent, known to MI6 as ‘Redwood’, revealed the Kremlin’s secret plot and prevented Armageddon. 
 
This unsung, hitherto unknown hero of the Cold War, a six-foot-four Russian intelligence officer had a problem, a sexual secret, one that if revealed, would turn his life upside-down. So he reached out to MI6, believing it to have the only solution – in return for the KGB’s secrets. Then, facing exposure, he demanded that the British smuggle him out of Iran in a high-stakes escape plan. 
 
This is the gripping tale of one man’s courage; about friendship, marriage, betrayal and sexual dysfunction; and about how decisions made in secret can have huge, long-term ramifications. 
 
Drawing on never-before-seen material from multiple countries, and interviews with officers from MI6 and MI5, the KGB and CIA, Redwood lifts the lid on how espionage really works, and on an unknown and major Cold War victory.

Ben Macintyre

Praise for Redwood

Redwood might be his best yet

Books by Ben Macintyre

Articles featuring Ben Macintyre

The double agent who changed the course of history | Ben Macintyre

Videos

The Siege by Ben Macintyre | Book trailer

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