Terry Waite

When Terry Waite laughs it is a joyful, booming sound that comes from deep within his massive frame and echoes all around the room. It’s also a total surprise.

‘There is another part to my life. I’m not entirely serious. I do have a sense of humour,’ insists the former hostage, best known for having endured nearly five years as a captive of Islamists in Beirut.

He was kidnapped in 1987, having gone there to try to negotiate the release of others.

Waite was kept in solitary confinement, blindfolded and chained to a radiator for much of the time, unaware that his plight had sparked an international campaign for his release.

Even now, years after he was freed, events in the Middle East bring back new memories of captivity.
He has an horrific story to tell about those long days and nights - and the time his captors put a gun to his head and told him to say a last prayer.