The Dig -- John Preston

This is a comical piece of historical fiction that I read one afternoon at the British Library, where I was waiting for unexpected October rainshowers to subside.  The book description was intriguing and the mere 200-odd pages made it easy to tackle in one sitting.  So I went ahead and opened the pages, and was soon enough completely engrossed in it.

The story revolves around an old Anglo-Saxon ship burial found in the quiet town of Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England.  Only one other ship burial of this magnificent size had been discovered and that had been in Norway, so the importance of this dig can only be imagined.  The comedy of it all centers on how at first the dig is kept under wraps by the owner of the site; then how as the local museum, and people out at Cambridge, get a whiff of the dig, they descend first in trickles, then in droves to bask in this unexpected discovery.  The story is based on true events of the Sutton Hoo excavation of 1939.  It appears the author, John Preston, is a descendant of Margaret Piggott, who had a hand in the actual discovery of the buried gold.  He heard of the story only a few years ago, and after exhaustive research on the subject, crafted this beautiful novel in 2007.  You can read his account of the historical event, and the inspiration that he drew from it when writing the novel, in his article 'My Buried History' published by The Telegraph.   

The author admits to changing many of the facts of the actual dig, most notably the timeframe having been reduced to a period of just one summer (between April and June 1939) in order to get the pace of the narrative right.  It is also that period when war is looming in the horizon and England is preparing for aerial attacks from the Nazis.  Thus, the act of finding a buried treasure of this immensity becomes rather symbolic, as if to maintain that whatever the apocalypse rearing its ugly head, people have the ability to endure and sustain, making it very hard to believe in the theory of the end of the world. 

The author has based his characters on the real people involved in the Sutton Hoo dig, but their quirks and characteristics are all his own.  He has made them memorable and very likeable, complete with all their disappointments, hopes, expectations, greed, love and awe all rolled up into a potent combination during that one eventful summer.  The atmosphere is sizzling with these emotions as the dig gathers in importance.

There's 56-year-old Edith Pretty, widowed a few years previously, with her nine-year-old son Robert (often experiencing raised eyebrows from people as late motherhood was an exception then).  She is a strong capable intelligent woman, but ailing now though she tries to hide it from everyone around her.  She is the one who started the dig in the first place; her deceased husband had always believed that there was something significant beneath the large scattered mounds of earth that dotted their land.

There's earthy taciturn Basil Brown, whom Mrs Pretty brings in to examine the grassy mounds that lie near her sprawling home.  Basil Brown is a handyman by profession but with a passion for archeology; he knows all there is to know about conducting a dig though he is largely self taught.  He goes about the dig methodically and even expertly, but the final discovery takes his breath away.  His wife is wiser than he, and vainly tries to ensure that he gets his due as the dig assumes importance over the weeks.  A few of the mounds turn out to have been robbed centuries ago, but when he finally tackles one of the larger mounds, he realizes with uncharacteristic excitement just what he is looking at.

But inevitably more authoritative and informed people arrive on the scene after the local museum accidently lets slip about the discovery of a buried ship.  The dig is pulled from under Basil Brown, who now can only helplessly watch from the sidelines.  Peggy Piggott, well-versed with history, is pulled in with her husband by Charles Phillips of Cambridge renown, which brings an abrupt end to their honeymoon.  Her small size makes it easy for her to maneuvre into the now-exposed ship without damaging it and she is the one to make the first discovery of gold artefacts.   

The emotions that whirl through the book are genuine.  The story is told in the first person but through three voices -- Edith Pretty, Basil Brown, and Peggy Piggott.  Edith's illness seems to influence many of her actions and reactions, but the dig proceeds as she expected when she first contemplated the excavation after her husband's death.  Basil Brown is noncommittal through all that happens but one can feel his pain at not having an active hand in the pet project that was originally his.  The pompous Charles Phillips comes out as a pushy arrogant personage who gets his own way.  Peggy's insecurities about her marriage become apparent and it doesn't suprise the reader to learn that she subsequently divorces her husband Stuart and moves on to greater things.  The last word is reserved for Robert Pretty, many years later, as he reminscences about the dig and wraps up the loose ends of the narrative.

A beautiful book.  I feel Mr Preston has captured the moods of everyone involved perfectly.  He has not encumbered the narrative with too many boring details and one can see the dig unfold before one's eyes.  His descriptions are powerful enough to evoke a sense of the seasons and the looming changes that threaten the quiet countryside as well as the nation as a whole as it lies on the brink of the war.  True, there's nothing earth-shattering about the narrative; after all, most of the facts are already known and the end is only predictable.  Nonetheless, I spent a couple of delightful hours with the book that afternoon, just digging in.