The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London, Second Edition

By: Steven P. Moysey

Narrated by: Jon C Dixon

Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

A pause resisting, real life thriller recounting the story of the Irish Republican Army Active Service Unit, placed in deep cover in London, and their murderous campaign against the British establishment. Equally gripping is the story of the Metropolitan police and their efforts to first identify the elusive group of terrorist, and then apprehend them. This is the true story of a deadly cat and mouse game played out on the streets of London that resulted in the infamous armed stand off at what would later be called the Balcombe Street Siege.

©2015 Dr. Steven P. Moysey (P)2019 Dr. Steven P. Moysey

Critic reviews

"This is the first comprehensive and all-embracing account of the events leading up to the hostage taking incident at Balcombe Street and the successful and peaceful efforts to secure the release of the victims and surrender of the perpetrators." (Lord Peter Imbert, CVO, QPM, DL)

Excellently researched, informative and narrated

This book has been excellently researched and as such, highly informative of the various factors that led to the siege at Balcombe Street.
Counter-terrorist specialist Dr Steve Moysey is thorough in establishing the authentic details surrounding the build-up to the siege, the siege itself and the conclusion from meticulously reviewing the evidence he collected.
He explains the psychological aspects of all those involved and thoroughly describes the negotiation tactics employed by the negotiators.
Superbly narrated by Jon C Dixon.

Enlightening and Intriguing

I must say that the history of the IRA reign of terror was something I was only familiar with by hearing about the story on national news from time to time all those years ago, and since in 1975 I was still so young, I honestly did not know much about the details. This is truly an enlightening and intriguing narrative about the atrocities wrought upon London by these terrorists. At times, I did feel a little overwhelmed about the details and wished I had bought the book at the same time to follow along, however, I do feel this is a good story, not only for the quality but for the depth of the research and history relayed in this book. He does an outstanding job in the amount of detail. Also, Jon Dixon, as the narrator, is incredible and his smooth and fluid voice adds much to the narrative and holding a listener's interest in the storyline. I look forward to the movie in the making and I do recommend this book as a great read and listen.

Fact-dense with fantastic analysis!

I discovered this book in August of 2019. The book is dominated by facts and an in depth analysis of the events, as well a look at the psychological states of those involved. The author covers the events leading up to Balcombe St in fantastic detail, as well as a very thorough play-by-play of the six day siege on Balcombe St during December 1975. In February 2020, I visited London for the first time. During my trip, I visited a few locations from the book. While in the area of Balcombe St, I listened again to the chapter involving the pursuit of the ASU up Rossmore Rd, and eventually down the stairs to Taunton Pl/Boston Pl/Balcombe St. The description of the events was so vivid that I could almost see the events taking place in front of me. This book is a must read for any fan of British and/or Irish history.