The Dig
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  • Published: 24 July 2008
  • ISBN: 9780141016382
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:

The Dig

Now a BAFTA-nominated motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan and Lily James

Formats & editions
Paperback
5 Jan 2021
EBook
24 Jul 2008
Audiobook
3 Sep 2020
Paperback
24 Jul 2008
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A brilliantly realized account of the most famous archeological dig in British history

In the long hot summer of 1939 Britain is preparing for war. But on a riverside farm in Suffolk there is excitement of another kind: Mrs Petty, the widowed farmer, has had her hunch proved correct that the strange mounds on her land hold buried treasure. As the dig proceeds against a background of mounting national anxiety, it becomes clear though that this is no ordinary find ... And pretty soon the discovery leads to all kinds of jealousies and tensions. John Preston's recreation of the Sutton Hoo dig - the greatest Anglo-Saxon discovery ever in Britain - brilliantly and comically dramatizes three months of intense activity when locals fought outsiders, professionals thwarted amateurs, and love and rivaly flourished in equal measure
  • Published: 24 July 2008
  • ISBN: 9780141016382
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:

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Watford Forever
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A Very English Scandal
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Praise for The Dig

An enthralling story of love and loss, a real literary treasure. One of the most original novels of the year

Robert Harris

Very fine, engrossing, exquisitely original

Ian McEwan

An enthralling story of love and loss, a real literary treasure. One of the most original novels of the year

Robert Harris

You don't need to be in archaeology - this is a tale of rivalry, loss and thwarted love. It's so absorbing that I read right through lunchtime one day, and it's not often I miss a meal

Nigella Lawson

A rich vein of dry humour runs throughout

Evening Standard

Intriguing, tender and entertaining . easily Preston's best

Independent

A delicate, quietly affecting human drama

Daily Mail

A moving novel that coheres wonderully as it progresses

Spectator

A delicate evocation of a vanished era

Sunday Times

Wonderful, evocative. From this simple tale of dirt, Preston has produced the finest gold. He keeps an iron grip on the reader's attention

Observer

Beatutifully written...there is a true and wonderful ending to the story

Bill Wyman, Mail on Sunday

Wistful and poignant. A masterpiece in Chekhovian understatement

Times Literary Supplement

Exciting, evocative and beautifully written. A treasure in itself

Griff Rhys Jones

Shimmers with longing and regret . . . Preston writes with economical grace . . . He has written a kind of universal chamber piece, small in detail, beautifully made and liable to linger on in the heart and the mind. It is something utterly unfamiliar, and quite wonderful.

Michael Pye, The New York Times Book Review