Victor Sebestyen's Twelve Days is a corker of a book - fascinating to read and obviously well-researched. On the one hand, it is a simple chronological tale about the failed 1956 Hungarian revolution against the Soviet occupation. On the other, it is a vignette of one particular episode in the Cold War that had consequences for both the Russian and US governments. Moreover, it is an intriguing study of power politics, not just between the two superpowers, but of how allegiances moved within and between the Hungarian rulers and their Russian masters.

And it resonates beyond this particular episode. When Victor describes how the Hungarians waited in vain for the Americans to come to their aid, I thought of the Marsh Arabs after the first Iraq war. When he discusses how this revolution exposed the weaknesses of the Soviet oligarchy, unknown at the time in the West, it makes one question the strength of other oligarchies, such as China; and when he examines particular Hungarian political figures, their motivations and the myths that have grown up around them, you understand again that most people are different and represent shifting shades of grey.

Victor is interested in the grey area. "I think it's important to try and explain how something happened and usually how it is various shades of grey, not black or white," he said. Two Hungarians particularly encapsulate what he is talking about. Imry Nagy, an amiable long-time communist who was persuaded to take over as prime minister during the rebellion, became a scapegoat and was executed. Jnos Kdr, who at first joined Nagy, soon went over to the Russians and was installed as head of a Soviet puppet regime after they invaded. If you read the book, you will understand that while one might seem a martyr and the other a traitor, it wasn't as simple as that.

Victor was born in Hungary a few months before the 1956 revolution, but escaped with his family to England while still an infant. He was brought up here, and now lives in Combe, near Witney. Although his mother tongue is English and he was educated and has lived here all his life, a large part of him will always be Hungarian. "I started going back in the seventies," he said. "I really love the atmosphere of the place and I do feel at home there."

He trained as a journalist and became a commentator on Eastern Europe, covering the historic events of 1989, when the Iron Curtain dramatically collapsed. He thinks his background helped. "I think I understood what communism was like. It helped to do the story. A lot of the other journalists could grasp communism intellectually and they spoke to enough dissidents and they did their job very well, but I actually felt it. I kept thinking, 'but for an accident in history, this could be me'. That was always in my mind."

So when Victor came to write his first book, the Hungarian revolution seemed an obvious choice of subject. "I knew some of the story," he said. "It was imbued in the bones, although it turns out a lot of what I was brought up to believe was rubbish or exaggerated." Like what? At the time the Suez crisis was brewing. "It was always a myth that it was Suez that made the Russians come back and crush the revolution," he said. "My mum went to her grave believing that if it hadn't been for Suez then Hungary would have been able to go free, but of course, it's very clear from all the comments that that isn't true."

Many of the protagonists have died since he interviewed them. Their reminiscences helped immeasurably with the book, although it was not easy to get their stories when he first started visiting Hungary, when the 1956 revolution was a taboo subject. At first this was simply because it was dangerous. "Even after that, when things were relaxed, it was part of the deal they made with Kdr and the leadership afterwards, that we'll look after your material needs as far as we can and we'll try and protect you against the worst excesses of the Soviets, but you've got to behave yourselves."

Recent celebrations of the uprising's 50th anniversary were marked by demonstrations against the current political leadership, but the centre-right protesters are unlikely to attract a groundswell of universal support, as was seen in 1956. The author says: "What they all agreed on in 1956 was to get the Russians out. Who plays the role of the Russians now?"

* Twelve Days: Revolution 1956 is published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson at £20.