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 though that this is no ordinary find... And pretty soon the discovery leads to all kinds of jealousies and tensions.

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 rivaly flourished in equal measure.

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'A gem by an unsung writer at the top of his game.'
The Daily Telegraph

'Preston produces a little masterpiece of fictional archaeology.'
The Times

'A sensitive and beautifully written evocation of the finding of the Sutton Hoo Saxon treasure in Suffolk in 1939.'
The Spectator