2021, film tie-in edition

When I’m writing, I often don’t feel like reading in the same genre, particularly the precise subgenre of epic fantasy, which is why I’ve been dipping into crime (The Dry by Jane Harper) and more recently science fiction (The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.)

Historical fiction, though, has always been one of my most enduring loves, which led me recently to The Dig by John Preston, which has been made into a film, starring Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes,  and Lily James.

The book is a fictionalised account of the excavation of the Sutton Hoo archaeological site, in the months immediately preceding the United Kingdom’s entry into World War 2.

The Sutton Hoo site is one of the UK’s most significant archaeological excavations, one which illuminated and “rewrote” understanding of the early Anglo Saxon era. A significance given greater gravity and urgency, I imagine, by the looming shadow of war.

Needless to say I am very much looking forward to reading it. Here is what the NZ publisher, Penguin NZ, has to say on their site in terms of what the book is about:

2008 edition

“A brilliantly realised 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 Pretty, the widowed landowner, 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 rivalry flourished in equal measure.”

Well, I shall see for myself when reading on…

I also understand the novel was first published in 2008, but republished in 2021 for the film tie-in, which is the edition I bought — yes, from a local bookshop, too: so old school! 😉