A Review By Tamsin at Kenilworth Books

‘The Dig’ is tale of class, love, war and major archaeological discovery. This short novel, set as the lowering clouds of war gather across England in the summer of 1939, chronicles the events surrounding the discovery of the Anglo-Saxon ship-burial of King Raedwald at Sutton Hoo in sleepy Suffolk. The novel is based on the surviving true accounts of the dig and peopled with the real characters. Wealthy land-owner Edith Pretty asks a local archaeologist Basil Brown to excavate the mounds on her land. What he finds changes the understanding of history. Young Peggy Piggot arrives, cutting short her honeymoon, and surprises everyone by unearthing the first of the treasures. But, away from the dig, her world and her marriage are already falling apart. Tensions escalate and relationships fray as the threatening war creeps ever closer and ambition vies with jealousy.  Increasingly alarming radio reports reach this small community and the archaeologists find themselves in a race to uncover the treasures and remove them to safely before the bombs start to fall.