Updates

The US edition of Operation Thunderbolt – published on 1 December 2015 – has been awarded a prestigious star for books of ‘exceptional merit’ by the influential Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus wrote: ‘With high tension and as many plot twists as any fictional thriller, this book is hard to put down.’ It has also been chosen as a main selection for the December brochure of the Military Book Club, the History Book Club and the Library of Science. Click here for full Kirkus review

Saul’s Operation Thunderbolt has been chosen as one of the Irish Independent‘s 20 ‘super summer reads’. It describes the book as ‘fast-paced’ and ‘action-packed’.

Saul’s Operation Thunderbolt was one of six books recommended by Maggie Fergusson, the literary editor of the Economist’s magazine Intelligent Life. She writes in the September/October issue: ‘Saul David carries us hour by hour from the hijack on June 27th to the denouement a week later in what was, and remains, the boldest rescue mission ever launched… He combines phenomenal research with the paciness of a thriller.’

Two more critics have given the thumbs up to Saul’s new book Operation Thunderbolt. It’s a ‘ripping good read’, wrote Sam Kiley in the London Evening Standard, ‘and a meticulously researched work of history’. David Wilcock added in the Yorkshire Post: ‘Saul David’s book is a stylish addition to the canon’ that combines ‘the pacing of a thriller with the attention to detail of a scholarly work’. Click here to read Kiley’s full review

In today’s Observer, Ben Shephard praises Saul’s new book as ‘meticulously researched, skilfully constructed, carefully balanced and absorbing… Combining the copious literature with interviews with participants, David tells the tale in a novelistic way, almost hour by hour, cutting from the hostages in the sweltering old terminal building in Entebbe to the government offices and military training grounds in Israel. The tension builds steadily.’ It was also chosen as The Week‘s Book of the Week, with quotes from the previous reviews in the Mail on Sunday, Sunday Telegraph, Literary Review and Jewish Chronicle.

Two more rave reviews of Saul’s new book have appeared in The Times and The Spectator. ‘Told with the style and pace of TV thrillers such as 24,’ wrote Tom Coghlan in The Times. Clare Mulley added in The Spectator: ‘Gripping… As the hours tick down to the threatened bloody denouement, tension mounts and the atmosphere thickens… A page-turner, with its single clear mission, cast of distinct personalities and very filmic scenes.’ Click here for full text of Spectator review

Craig Brown, chief critic of the Mail on Sunday, gives Saul’s new book 5 stars in today’s newspaper. He writes: ‘It’s a brilliantly orchestrated book, wonderfully rich in detail, but at the same time roaring along at a heart-thumping pace… I embarked on this book as someone not particularly interested in the Middle East, or in adventure tales of soldiers in action; I finished it in a state of high tension, buzzing through the pages in the need to know what happened next.’ Click here for whole review

Saul’s new book Operation Thunderbolt has received more praise in the Literary Review. ‘A wonderful narrative,’ writes Jonathan Mirsky. ‘For the first time in my reading life I felt physically thrilled by a book.’

Last Saturday Saul wrote a comment piece about his new book Operation Thunderbolt for the Daily Telegraph. Click here to read

Robert Low gave the thumbs up to Saul’s new book Operation Thunderbolt in a review in the Jewish Chronicle. He wrote: ‘Saul David’s gripping new account…will introduce a new generation to an extraordinary story… The climax of the rescue is brilliantly told; nearly 40 years on, you still heave a sigh of relief when the last Hercules lifts off from the Entebbe runway and lumbers off into the night and a new dawn for the hostages.’ Click here for full text