A brilliantly realised account of the most famous archeological dig in British history, now a major motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan and Lily James. `Exquisitely original`- Ian MacEwan `An enthralling story of love and loss` - Robert Harris 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 Petty, the widowed farmer, 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 that this is no ordinary find... 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. `A tale of rivalry, loss and thwarted love so absorbing that I read right through lunchtime one day, and it`s not often I miss a meal` - Nigella Lawson `A delicate evocation of a vanished era` - Sunday Times