Ben Macintyre: Author on writing, The Siege, the Auckland Writer's Festival

Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

Ben Macintyre captivates readers with true stories.

He expertly unravels complex historical events, explaining sharp subplots and side characters while artfully deploying dry humour to make the true stories he tells digestible.

His most recent non-fiction work is The Siege – a story of how in April 1980, six men stormed the Iranian embassy in London and took 26 hostages they held for six days.

Macintyre told Jack Tame he was 17 when the situation took place, and since that point he’d always wanted to write about it.

“It was the most dramatic thing I’d ever seen on television,” he said.

“It was one of those stories that entered mythology very quickly – it became a sort of story of, sort of SAS daring do, and kind of you know, fighting against the odds, and you know, the story itself is much more complicated than that.”

“I've really enjoyed writing this one.”

Macintyre is coming to New Zealand for the Auckland Writer’s Festival, delving into his work at three different events across the festival.

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