short notice but come and join me at the Frontline club tomorrow night to talk about the extremists who hijacked the 1970s, featuring carlos the Jackal, Leila Khaled, Mossad hits, exploding chianti, the iranian revolution, al-Qaeda and much else! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-talk-...

Book talk: The Revolutionists

The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s.

eventbrite.co.uk

The Shadow War part 17695. Iran and Israel are not likely to abandon their addiction to proxies soon, with consequences for everyone, i argue here: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Shadow war: how use of proxy forces by Iran, Israel and US is driving Middle East instability

Across region there is a push to disarm militia and reinforce state authority but the temptation to use proxies remains

theguardian.com

Just arrived and looking good... #beachreads

aftermath of US-Iran-Israel war will be messy we have another ceasefire which freezes a conflicts but resolves little Israel is destabilising actor as it seeks a new post-Oct 2023 order Gulf states are stuck b/n unreliable US and newly empowered Iran read here: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

US-Iran deal may get oil flowing again, but region’s root problems are unsolved

Few analysts believe final settlement can be reached in 60 days – and even if it is, war and instability could soon return

theguardian.com

The Revolutionists is out in paperback tomorrow! hooray! A steal at ten quid or so. www.waterstones.com/book/the-rev...

The Revolutionists by Jason Burke | Waterstones

Buy The Revolutionists by Jason Burke from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

waterstones.com

woo am talking at #thehayfestival about #TheRevolutionists on Saturday evening come and help me get bigger crowd than Michael McIntyre who is on main stage at same time. Frankly, he's no competition for Red Army Faction, Carlos the Jackal, Leila Khaled et al www.hayfestival.com/p-25454-jaso...

Jason Burke talks to Oliver Bullough - Hay Festival

The international terrorism expert talks to the journalist about a seismic decade of hijackings and hostage-takings that transformed the modern world.

hayfestival.com

google tells me "Dads frequently gravitate toward non-fiction that reads like an impossible thriller." I'm going to lean into this #DadLit #DadLitNotDead www.wsj.com/business/med...

Dad Books Are a Dying Breed

Print sales of “serious” nonfiction are in serious decline, and publishers think the reason is the smorgasbord of podcasts and other new media their male readers are devouring.

wsj.com

Reading the excellent 'The Revolutionists' by @jasonburke2.bsky.social and got to this bit about incidents in 1983...

👍 Recommend this 🔽. Traces the left-wing terrorism of the 1970s through to the Islamist terrorism of later decades detailing continuities and ruptures. Palestine is central to the story and the sections on the Iranian revolution in 1979 are hugely relevant to now... www.penguin.co.uk/books/440432...

The Revolutionists

Immersive, globe-spanning and full of detail and drama, The Revolutionists is an unprecedented account of a seismic decade that transformed the modern world. In the 1970s, a network of radical extrem...

penguin.co.uk

British investigators are circumspect but experts and security officials say Golders Green attack has hallmarks of Iranian intelligence my analysis etc here: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Tangled trail probably leads from Golders Green ambulance attack to Tehran

British investigators are circumspect but experts and security officials say incident has hallmarks of Iranian intelligence

theguardian.com

ICYMI My analysis (plus others) on how the US risks winning a battle but losing a war ... www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Initiative may be slipping away from US and Israel as Middle East crisis deepens

There is little sign of imminent regime change in Iran as its blockade of strait of Hormuz shocks global economy

theguardian.com

meanwhile in Gaza Israeli-backed Palestinian militias have stepped up operations against Hamas Evidence have increased their firepower as they carry out raids deep in Hamas-controlled territory my report: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Israeli-backed Palestinian militias step up operations against Hamas in Gaza

Armed groups appear to have increased their firepower as they carry out raids deep in Hamas-controlled territory

theguardian.com

"In his riveting The Revolutionists, Jason Burke treats the Iranian Revolution as a catalyst for “a new and different energy” that would surge through the Middle East. In its aftermath, ... older, leftist revolutionary currents were pushed to the margins." theconversation.com/the-iranian-...

The Iranian revolution transformed global extremism, replacing left-wing radicalism with religion

Left-wing radicalism dominated the 1970s – until the 1979 Iranian Revolution became a catalyst for ‘a new and different energy’.

theconversation.com

Iraq emerging as a new front in this spiralling conflict, with air strikes, militia, Kurds, Shia, proxies covert ops and more all in the mix our report here: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Iran-backed militias intensify attacks against US, Israel and allies

Iraq emerges as key front in new and often clandestine confrontation after launching dozens of attacks

theguardian.com

our latest on these US/Israeli plans to mobilise Kurds in the north of Iraq vs Iran. a quieter night in Jerusalem, thankfully. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Airstrikes hit Iran-Iraq border as US and Israeli plan to mobilise Kurds gathers pace

Experts say backing Iran’s ethnic communities could ‘open up a hornet’s nest’ and increase risk of chaotic civil war

theguardian.com

1/9. In 2020 Iran did try to interfere with the presidential election.

In jerusalem right now somewhat incongruous combination of bells from old city (sunday morning) and loud explosions as missiles from Iran aimed at central israel intercepted overhead. there's no doubt a latin tag that could be usefully deployed. Bluesky users may know. Twitter not so much.

noisy night here in Jerusalem with a lot of alerts and so in and out of the shelter. all clear half an hour ago, and a stunning clear blue sky. unsurprisingly empty streets. here's my file from last night on rise and demise of Ali Khamenei. The end of an era. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

The rise and fall of Iran’s ruthless and pragmatic Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

The radical cleric took over as supreme leader in 1989 and is likely to be replaced by hardline figures

theguardian.com

came through quiet Ben Gurion airport at 4am this morning on one of last flights in for who knows how long. woken by alerts pinging on phone when first wave of missiles came in, since pretty much nonstop sirens, jets overhead, and explosions rattling windows here in Jerusalem.

so what lessons might 1979 offer for 2026 in Iran? one is that the good guys may win but then not end up winning at all www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Nobody knows what would follow regime change in Iran – but what happened in 1979 offers some pointers | Jason Burke

The radical clerics benefited then – but who would prevail this time, asks the Guardian’s international security correspondent Jason Burke

theguardian.com

very very long, careful and clever review of The Revolutionists in the New Yorker .. which is pretty amazing "A new history charts how Palestinian militants of the nineteen-seventies made common cause with West Germany’s radical left." t.co/mk6on0oGOz

Finally got round to starting my birthday present, @jasonburke2.bsky.social ‘s Revolutionists. 100 pages in in two days and it’s excellent.

Our Patreon supporters now have access to our latest episode with @jasonburke2.bsky.social about his remarkable book, The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s, and they get their extra 15 minutes with Jason! Join us here: www.patreon.com/posts/revolu... #booksky

Here's a fantastic Spotify playlist with some of the best music that features in The Revolutionists. (yes the book is about terrorism, but it's also about the 70s, so there's a lot of tunes in it) open.spotify.com/playlist/0NW...

THE REVOLUTIONISTS

open.spotify.com

"The twenty-four-year-old gripping the Beretta 9mm pistol in his gloved hand had enjoyed many names in his short life ...." read the rest (of this extract from #TheRevolutionists) on the early years of Carlos the Jckal here: lithub.com/the-rise-of-...

The Rise of Carlos the Jackal, the Most Feared Terrorist of the 1970s

The twenty-four-year-old gripping the Beretta 9mm pistol in his gloved hand had enjoyed many names in his short life. To teasing classmates, he had been el Gordo or “the chubby one.” To…

lithub.com

The FT got is architecture critic Edwin Heathcote to write about data centres and it's wonderful. www.ft.com/content/7692...

am wildly pleased by big review of #TheRevolutionists in New York Times which says "timely, engaging" and other nice things the book is published this week in US, the final moment of a sometimes hard but generally extraordinary 10 year journey www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/b...

The Middle East Is on Fire. Who Lit the Match?

nytimes.com

Am v pleased that @AppleBooksOfficial chose THE REVOLUTIONISTS as a #BestBooks of January. "This gripping work of narrative history takes readers inside a decade when the rules of political violence were rewritten in real time" ... and you can find it here: t.co/Y7MUwkWlEC

ooh The Revolutionists is a Book of the Year in the Guardian, which is very nice to see. "in it less for the Marxism than the mayhem" is a) a great phrase and b) true

this is great too, The Revolutionists a book of the year in list in BBC History Extra, one of my all time favourite magazines, thanks to Onyeka Nubia there is not a book on the list I am not desperate to find time to read .. www.historyextra.com/magazine/his...

Best history books 2025: BBC History Magazine’s Books of the Year

In the roster of laudable history books published in 2025, authors tackled topics as diverse as Gaza, Indian partition, extinction, medieval and Stuart monarchs – even historians themselves. Here, a p...

historyextra.com