The Dig

The Dig is a historical novel by John Preston, published in May 2007, set in the context of the 1939 Anglo-Saxon ship burial excavation at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England. The dust jacket describes it as "a brilliantly realized account of the most famous archaeological dig in Britain in modern times". The author employs a degree of literary license so that the account in the book differs in various ways from the real events of the Sutton Hoo excavations. Background John Preston was for many years chief television critic for The Sunday Telegraph newspaper. He is also the nephew of one of the excavators of Sutton Hoo, Mrs. Peggy Piggott (wife of Stuart Piggott, afterward Edinburgh Professor of Archaeology), born Cecily Margaret Preston (1912–1994), but later known to the archaeological world as Margaret Guido. However, by his own account Preston only became aware of the story surrounding the excavation around 2004, and therefore the content is not derived directly from Mrs. Piggott's testimony. The novel is the first account of these events in which the role of Mrs. Piggott is particularly emphasised. Although she did not lead Basil Brown's excavation, she was the first of the excavators to discover gold items in the burial chamber within the ship, and therefore was at the forefront of it. The effect of the wonderful discovery on her, in particular, forms an important thread in this version of the story. She becomes the narrator of the chamber excavation part of the story (pp. 119–202).