...
Show More
Una bellissima storia vera, raccontata in maniera semplice e diretta. Ancora una volta bravo Follett.
Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book
On Wings of Eagles
...
Show More
The #1 International Bestseller now in trade paperback—with 16 pages of photos.Number-one bestselling author Ken Follett tells the inspiring, true story of the Middle East hostage crisis that began in 1979, and of the unconventional means Ross Perot used to save his countrymen.
416 pages, Paperback
First published September 3,1984
This edition
- Format
-
416 pages, Paperback
- Published
-
December 7, 2004 by NAL
- ISBN
-
- ASIN
-
- Language
-
English
About the author
...
Show More
Ken Follett is one of the world's most successful authors. Over 170 million copies of the 36 books he has written have been sold in over 80 countries and in 33 languages.
Born on June 5th, 1949 in Cardiff, Wales, the son of a tax inspector, Ken was educated at state schools and went on to graduate from University College, London, with an Honours degree in Philosophy – later to be made a Fellow of the College in 1995.
He started his career as a reporter, first with his hometown newspaper the South Wales Echo and then with the London Evening News. Subsequently, he worked for a small London publishing house, Everest Books, eventually becoming Deputy Managing Director.
Ken's first major success came with the publication of Eye of the Needle in 1978. A World War II thriller set in England, this book earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. It remains one of Ken's most popular books.
In 1989, Ken's epic novel about the building of a medieval cathedral, The Pillars of the Earth, was published. It reached number one on best-seller lists everywhere and was turned into a major television series produced by Ridley Scott, which aired in 2010. World Without End, the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, proved equally popular when it was published in 2007.
Ken's new book, The Evening and the Morning, will be published in September 2020. It is a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth and is set around the year 1,000, when Kingsbridge was an Anglo-Saxon settlement threatened by Viking invaders.
Ken has been active in numerous literacy charities and was president of Dyslexia Action for ten years. He was chair of the National Year of Reading, a joint initiative between government and businesses. He is also active in many Stevenage charities and is President of the Stevenage Community Trust and Patron of Home-Start Hertfordshire.
Ken, who loves music almost as much as he loves books, is an enthusiastic bass guitar player. He lives in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, with his wife Barbara, the former Labour Member of Parliament for Stevenage. Between them they have five children, six grandchildren and two Labradors.
Born on June 5th, 1949 in Cardiff, Wales, the son of a tax inspector, Ken was educated at state schools and went on to graduate from University College, London, with an Honours degree in Philosophy – later to be made a Fellow of the College in 1995.
He started his career as a reporter, first with his hometown newspaper the South Wales Echo and then with the London Evening News. Subsequently, he worked for a small London publishing house, Everest Books, eventually becoming Deputy Managing Director.
Ken's first major success came with the publication of Eye of the Needle in 1978. A World War II thriller set in England, this book earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. It remains one of Ken's most popular books.
In 1989, Ken's epic novel about the building of a medieval cathedral, The Pillars of the Earth, was published. It reached number one on best-seller lists everywhere and was turned into a major television series produced by Ridley Scott, which aired in 2010. World Without End, the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, proved equally popular when it was published in 2007.
Ken's new book, The Evening and the Morning, will be published in September 2020. It is a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth and is set around the year 1,000, when Kingsbridge was an Anglo-Saxon settlement threatened by Viking invaders.
Ken has been active in numerous literacy charities and was president of Dyslexia Action for ten years. He was chair of the National Year of Reading, a joint initiative between government and businesses. He is also active in many Stevenage charities and is President of the Stevenage Community Trust and Patron of Home-Start Hertfordshire.
Ken, who loves music almost as much as he loves books, is an enthusiastic bass guitar player. He lives in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, with his wife Barbara, the former Labour Member of Parliament for Stevenage. Between them they have five children, six grandchildren and two Labradors.
Readers also enjoyed
Community Reviews
Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
34(34%)
4 stars
34(34%)
3 stars
32(32%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
...
Show More
Remember the Iranian hostage crisis of '79? Well, in 1978--before things arrived at that disastrous point in Iran's revolution against the Shah--several Americans found themselves imprisoned (in actuality, kidnapped and held for ransom) by the Iranian government, only to be abandoned by the American Embassy while the country fell apart around them.
Now remember Ross Perot of the 90s presidential races? Well, the men kidnapped were senior executives of Perot's company EDS. Unwilling to leave his men stranded, and unable to get his own government to intervene, Perot put together a daring and SUCCESSFUL rescue. Based on extensive interviews with all the parties involved, Follett creates a detailed account of the events leading up to and covering the kidnapping, rescue, and homecoming of the EDS employees.
The story takes on a greater significance as you come to realize that it was likely some of those same American Embassy personnel who ended up as the infamous hostages of 1979.
Now for a personal and somewhat embarrassing admission: The cartoon show Animaniacs, which was a huge favorite in my house, did a spoof of Ross Perot in one of their episodes. It was hilarious! And, yeah--it made it hard for me to take Perot's character in the book seriously. :)
Now remember Ross Perot of the 90s presidential races? Well, the men kidnapped were senior executives of Perot's company EDS. Unwilling to leave his men stranded, and unable to get his own government to intervene, Perot put together a daring and SUCCESSFUL rescue. Based on extensive interviews with all the parties involved, Follett creates a detailed account of the events leading up to and covering the kidnapping, rescue, and homecoming of the EDS employees.
The story takes on a greater significance as you come to realize that it was likely some of those same American Embassy personnel who ended up as the infamous hostages of 1979.
Now for a personal and somewhat embarrassing admission: The cartoon show Animaniacs, which was a huge favorite in my house, did a spoof of Ross Perot in one of their episodes. It was hilarious! And, yeah--it made it hard for me to take Perot's character in the book seriously. :)
...
Show More
Sehr spannend und immer wieder faszinierend! Man fiebert sehr mit den Charakteren mit und ist gespannt wie es weitergeht. Blöd ist nur,dass mitten im Buch sich einige Bilder befinden,welchen man den Ausgang der Odyssee schon erfährt. Dennoch blieb die Spannungskurve erhalten!
...
Show More
On The Wings Of Eagles did not seem as good as Ken Follett’s fictional works, but still is quite readable for a non-fiction narrative. Follett did an excellent job at describing H. Ross Perot (his motivations, life, and character) and how his loyalty to two of his employees imprisoned in Iran led to him using his connections to create a rescue team. The narrative was not overly dry or tedious, but various parts of the book failed to capture my interest and I ended up skim reading these sections. Still the story was quite extraordinary, and Ken Follett did a good job at using words to tell the reader what Iran was like.
...
Show More
Decent retelling by a great author of Ross Perot’s emergency evacuation of his employees from Iran in 1978-1979.
...
Show More
This is one of those books that I did not get around to reading when it first came out in 1983, but it was worth the wait... I throughly enjoyed it. Basically the book follows the actual events and participants in the imprisonment and eventual release of two IT specialists in Iran who worked for EDS, Ross Perot's computer systems firm back in the late 70s. It reads like a who-done-it, but the story is true and the dialog is as true to life as the participants could remember when telling of their experiences to Ken Follet, the author in preparing the book. Most of the individuals were just everyday engineers... nothing special or heroic about them until faced with real-like situations. Of course Ross Perot was, and still is, an out-of-this-world character who, using his vast fortunes, was able to arrange a story-book rescue led by a story-book retired Vietnam vet who knew all of the dirty tricks for setting up a prison rescue. A third individual, a young EDS employee who had been working for EDS in Tehran, also comes to light and is instrumental in getting the entire EDS team out of the country during the early days of the Iranian revolution after the fall of the Shah.
...
Show More
Wow. Talk about a page turner. I can't believe this book escaped my attention for so long, especially since it was written by one of my very favorite authors, but it was worth the wait. Also, full disclosure, I am a Ross Perot fan. He is the only presidential candidate that I have ever voted for because I actually liked him and not because it was the lesser of two evils.
If you like spy thrillers, you will love this book.
If you like spy thrillers, you will love this book.
...
Show More
Corporate derring do as the US government and US military are hamstrung by policy. Leave it to Ross Perot, middle-aged rescuers dedicated to saving wrongly imprisoned Americans, bags of money, tons of luck, all against the backdrop of Iran descending into mayhem and anarchy after the Shah was deposed. Oh, yeah, add that the team was headed up by legendary Special Forces operative "Bull" Simons, and you will know why this had to be made into a movie starring Burt Lancaster.
Leave a Review