A brilliantly realised account of the most famous archeological dig in British history now a
major motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes Carey Mulligan and Lily James. 'Exquisitely
original' Ian MacEwan 'An enthralling story of love and loss' Robert Harris 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 Pretty 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 that this is no ordinary find... 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 rivalry flourished in equal measure.
'A tale of rivalry loss and thwarted love so absorbing that I read right through lunchtime one
day and it's not often I miss a meal' Nigella Lawson'A delicate evocation of a vanished era'
Sunday Times
