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I was tempted to choose this book when it came out in hardback in May last year because I enjoyed it so much but at £16.99 I thought I would wait for the paperback edition which is now available.
I cannot agree more with the Penguin copy writer who wrote “John Preston’s new novel is a brilliantly realized account of the most famous archaeological dig in modern times.” This is a wonderfully evocative book describing the excavation of the Anglo Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk just before the outbreak of the second world war.
For John Preston the story began about four years ago when he discovered that his aunt, the well respected archaeologist Margaret Guido had helped at the excavation with her then husband Stuart Piggott (later Professor of Archaeology at Edinburgh University). Peggy Piggott as she was known in 1939 had left diaries which although did not cover the time of the excavation gave Preston a flavour of her ‘beguiling girlishness’ and it is this emphasis on characterisation, not just of Peggy Piggott but of the other personalities involved, which I particularly enjoyed.
The book is made up first person narratives from three main characters; Edith Pretty the owner on the land on which barrow covering the ship burial is located; Basil Brown the working class self taught local archaeologist who started the work at Sutton Hoo; and Peggy Piggott. Soon after the excavation started Basil Brown was sidelined by the pompous Cambridge archaeologist Charles Phillips and it this issue of class which I found most fascination. As a school boy in the late sixties and early seventies I worked in my local museum in North Lincolnshire and I came across the ghostly shadow of Charles Phillips in many of the museum’s displays and archives.
The Dig isn’t just about the characters involved. As many reviewers have pointed out the book is full of metaphors linked to the wartime context of the excavation including aspects of national identity, a race against time, working together as a team etc. Although the author has made alterations to the historical framework of the excavation for dramatic purposes and there are some factual mistakes which have been recently pointed out I don’t think these detract from the literary purpose of the novel.
Jeff Taylor
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