The dig, John Preston

On the eve of Britain’s entry into World War II, a widow living in a house called “Sutton Hoo,” engages a local self-taught archeologist to excavate one or more of the mounds on her property.  This imaginative retelling of the famous discovery of an Anglo-Saxon treasure trove in a “ship burial” is very engaging.  Mrs. Pretty married late and had a child, Robert, at the mature age of 42.  Her husband died not long after, and she wants to go ahead with what they had long discussed, finding out if grave robbers had left anything to find in the mounds.  When the British Museum catches wind of the dig, professional jealousies erupt and the race to finish this exploration before the outbreak of war, and to claim the treasure, becomes competitive.  Elegiac.  259 pp.