Six Years a Hostage

Download or Read eBook Six Years a Hostage PDF written by Stephen McGown and published by Robinson. This book was released on 2021-07-29 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
Six Years a Hostage
Author :
Publisher : Robinson
Total Pages : 256
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781472146632
ISBN-13 : 1472146638
Rating : 4/5 (32 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Six Years a Hostage by : Stephen McGown

Book excerpt: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE LONGEST-HELD AL QAEDA CAPTIVE IN THE WORLD Stephen McGown was en route from London to South Africa, on a once-in-a-lifetime trip by motorbike, returning home to Johannesburg. He had reached Timbuktu, in Mali, when he was captured, along with a Dutch and a Swedish national, by Al Qaeda Islamist militants. Steve was taken because he held a British passport. He was subsequently held hostage at various camps in the Sahara Desert in the north-west of Africa for nearly six years before eventually being released. Life as Steve had known it changed in that instant that he was taken at gunpoint. He had nothing to bargain with, and everything to lose. For the next six years, he reluctantly engaged in what he came to call the greatest chess game of his life. Thousands of kilometres to the south, in Johannesburg, the shock of Stephen's capture struck the McGown family and his wife, Cath, with whom he had, until recently, been living in London. They immediately began efforts to secure Steve's release, through diplomatic channels and in every other way they felt might have a chance of seeing Stephen freed. But as the months of captivity became years, Steve was compelled to go to extraordinary lengths to survive. Making it back home alive became his sole aim. To accomplish this, he realised that he would have to do everything he could to raise his status in the eyes of his captors. To this end, he taught himself Arabic and French, and also converted to Islam, accepting a new name, Lot. To this day, Steve retains the unenviable record of being the longest-held, surviving prisoner of Al Qaeda. While he was undoubtedly always Al Qaeda's captive, through the long years he spent in intimate proximity to his captors, Steve got to see the Islamist militants as few other Westerners have ever seen them. Six Years a Hostage is not only a remarkable story of mental strength, physical endurance and the resilience of the human spirit, but also, significantly, a unique and nuanced perspective on one of the world's most feared terrorist groups. Steve did not merely survive his terrible ordeal; he emerged from the desert a changed - stronger, more positive - human being. This is Stephen McGown's remarkable story, as told to Tudor Caradoc-Davies, a freelance writer, editor and author based in Cape Town, South Africa. After seven years spent working for glossy magazines such as Men's Health, GQ, Best Life and Women's Health, he now contributes to a range of publications. He also writes for the (South African) Sunday Times, and Red Bulletin.


Six Years a Hostage Related Books

Six Years a Hostage
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Stephen McGown
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 2023-02-16 - Publisher: Robinson

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE LONGEST-HELD AL QAEDA CAPTIVE IN THE WORLD Stephen McGown was en route from London to South Africa, on a once-in-a-lifetime trip
Even Silence Has an End
Language: en
Pages: 554
Authors: Ingrid Betancourt
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-09-21 - Publisher: Penguin

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Betancourt's riveting account...is an unforgettable epic of moral courage and human endurance." -Los Angeles Times In the midst of her campaign for the Colombi
The Tightening Dark
Language: en
Pages: 256
Authors: Sam Farran
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-07-27 - Publisher: Hachette Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This riveting memoir follows a Lebanese-Muslim-American and thirty-year US Marine veteran who suffered a six-month ordeal at the hands of a brutal regime in Yem
Six Days in August: The Story of Stockholm Syndrome
Language: en
Pages: 322
Authors: David King
Categories: True Crime
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-08-04 - Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A rollicking account of the bizarre hostage drama that gave rise to the term "Stockholm syndrome." On the morning of August 23, 1973, a man wearing a wig, makeu
Hostage Zero
Language: en
Pages: 464
Authors: John Gilstrap
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-04-24 - Publisher: Pinnacle Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A mysterious kidnapping kicks off ”a roller-coaster ride of adrenaline-inducing plot twists” in this thriller by the New York Times bestselling author (Publ