- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Viking; First Edition edition (3 May 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670914916
- ISBN-13: 978-0670914913
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 14.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 459,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Dig
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Product Description
Review
Praise for John Preston's previous novels: 'The quality of the writing is superb ... Preston is a natural' Independent 'Wonderful comic territory ... like a Martin Amis novel rewritten by Sir Kingsley' Mail on Sunday 'Utterly compelling' Irish Times 'The work of a master' Evening Standard 'One of the three or four best new novels I have read in the Nineties' Sunday Telegraph 'Makes you think, but above all it makes you laugh' Evening Standard
Spectator, May 12, 2007
The drama of the excavation itself is described with care; Preston
keeps us hooked on its painstaking progress, with neat and direct prose.
keeps us hooked on its painstaking progress, with neat and direct prose.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I must state an interest - I love Preston's grumpy TV column in the Sunday Telegraph, which is why this caught my eye in the first place. But this is completely different.
This is a wonderful, evocative and, ultimately, moving novel - ostensibly about the excavation of the Anglo-Saxon burial ship at Sutton Hoo on the eve of the Second World War but, on a deeper level (see what I did there again?), about love and loss and memory.
Based on real events and characters (one of whom was apparently a relative of the author), it is beautifully written and drily funny. It has an elegaic quality (reminded me a bit of the opening chapters of McEwan's Atonement) and lingers in the mind long after the book is finished. Who knew archaeology could be so gripping?
This is a wonderful, evocative and, ultimately, moving novel - ostensibly about the excavation of the Anglo-Saxon burial ship at Sutton Hoo on the eve of the Second World War but, on a deeper level (see what I did there again?), about love and loss and memory.
Based on real events and characters (one of whom was apparently a relative of the author), it is beautifully written and drily funny. It has an elegaic quality (reminded me a bit of the opening chapters of McEwan's Atonement) and lingers in the mind long after the book is finished. Who knew archaeology could be so gripping?
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A surprisingly short but beautiful read. Whilst being a fictionalised version of the finding of the Sutton Hoo treasure, the real focus is on the relationships between the characters, not least how these were influenced by the rigid stratification of social and/or academic status. In the background looms the onset of the Second War.
The story is told successively by four of the leading characters, enabling very different perspectives to be drawn, and much of the understanding of the characters to be developed implicitly. The story itself is told with a lightness of touch that pulled me along irresistibly. For such an easy and short read, there was an awful lot there!
I found this book strongly reminiscent of one of my all-time favourites, J.L. Carr's "A Month In the Country". Highly elegiac, it evokes a time and place that we half recognise, but which doesn't really exist any more. Strongly recommended.
The story is told successively by four of the leading characters, enabling very different perspectives to be drawn, and much of the understanding of the characters to be developed implicitly. The story itself is told with a lightness of touch that pulled me along irresistibly. For such an easy and short read, there was an awful lot there!
I found this book strongly reminiscent of one of my all-time favourites, J.L. Carr's "A Month In the Country". Highly elegiac, it evokes a time and place that we half recognise, but which doesn't really exist any more. Strongly recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"Absolutely superb novel of the story of the Sutton Hoo discovery just before WWII. In a sleepy town in Suffolk, Mrs Pretty, a widow, finally decides to have some tumuli on her land excavated. She gets in a local self-taught archaeologist, Basil Brown, who painstakingly digs away and reveals the sandy remains of a wooden ship - only the nails remain. But in step the men from the British Museum to take over the dig ... but all rivalries eventually get put aside when they discover gold! Behind it all is the looming spectre of imminent war.
Each section of the story of this momentous dig is told from the changing main character of the time's point of view, going from Mrs Pretty to Basil Brown and so on through the few months of the dig. The local museum man is understandably reluctant to hand over the dig to the experts from London who depart as soon as the treasures are found leaving Basil to wind things up again.
We all know the results from the amazing gold on display to this day in the British Museum, but the human story behind those involved in the dig is less well known, and for all the lack of big drama is compelling none the less.
What made this novel for me is that I went to visit the site maybe 15 yrs ago, and was treated to a fantastic talk by a volunteer and the dig itself was still live - the ship may have been discovered, but in the neighbouring field, they were trying to find out more about the way of life of the Anglo-Saxons who lived there.
A lovely gentle novel about gentlemen archaeologists and country life."
Each section of the story of this momentous dig is told from the changing main character of the time's point of view, going from Mrs Pretty to Basil Brown and so on through the few months of the dig. The local museum man is understandably reluctant to hand over the dig to the experts from London who depart as soon as the treasures are found leaving Basil to wind things up again.
We all know the results from the amazing gold on display to this day in the British Museum, but the human story behind those involved in the dig is less well known, and for all the lack of big drama is compelling none the less.
What made this novel for me is that I went to visit the site maybe 15 yrs ago, and was treated to a fantastic talk by a volunteer and the dig itself was still live - the ship may have been discovered, but in the neighbouring field, they were trying to find out more about the way of life of the Anglo-Saxons who lived there.
A lovely gentle novel about gentlemen archaeologists and country life."
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Enjoyable but falls short of being great
Immediately evocative and inviting when you start it, the book doesn't quite follow through on its promise. Read more
Published 2 months ago by WillDavies
Small but perfectly formed.
Even if you think you are not interested in the past or archaeology, I defy you not to enjoy this book. Read more
Published 7 months ago by patrician
one of the best ive ever read.
Borrowed this from the local library and enjoyed it so much i had to buy it.the writer instantly evokes the period so well(england in the1930s-40s). Read more
Published 7 months ago by J. Storey
Evocative and emotive
Although 'The Dig' in question took only a few months to provide answers to what lay beneath the mounds at Sutton Hoo for 1400 years or so, the deeper story behind the characters... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Michael Watson
Kindle edition pricier than planet-destroying paper one.
Whatever the merits of the book, the pricing of the Kindle edition is driving people to get the cheaper paperback version, destroying trees (for the book and packaging) and... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Andrew Kennedy
The Dig
I loved this book - I felt that I had been taken on a gentle visit into the past. A delightfully crafted book based on the factual dig at Sutton Hoo in 1939. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Elizabeth Olford
the dig by john preston
A brilliant read with a mixture of historic value and fiction with a romantic slide. Based at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk and over looking the river Deben, the story of a great find... Read more
Published 18 months ago by jj seagull
A different angle on an archeological dig
The writer takes basic facts and weaves them into an intriguing story, yet retains some of the original detail, it makes the original discoveries at Sutton Hoo come alive.
Published 18 months ago by A. J. Jordan
A lovely read
Takes you back to the spirit of the age and beautifully written. The format manages to recreate
the polical climate of the time and reveal an England lost in time.
the polical climate of the time and reveal an England lost in time.
Published on 9 Nov 2009 by Jack Russell
A tender and compelling read.....
At one level this is a very slight story: Landowner asks archaeologists to investigate the mounds on her land. They dig and find Anglo-Saxon treasure. Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2009 by Wynne Kelly
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