Why did you not mention, even in the epilogue, the iconic Sutton Hoo helmet?
Aha… a very interesting point. The reason I didn’t mention it was because the helmet wasn’t discovered while Stuart and Peggy Piggott were at Sutton Hoo. It was found after they had left, and then it wasn’t actually pieced together until the early 1950s. So, as far as I was concerned, it didn’t really fit into my time-frame. I agree that the helmet subsequently became the iconic Sutton Hoo image, but at the time it was rather dwarfed by all the other discoveries. 3. Did you personally visit or work on any archaeological dig in order to get a ‘feel’ for your story? I’m afraid not – I’ve never been on an archaeological dig in my life. I’m a bit shamefaced about admitting this as I feel I probably should have done. I also strongly suspect that I wouldn’t have the necessary patience. Fortunately, though, there is a lot of written material about Sutton Hoo so I was able to get a reasonably good idea of what was involved. There’s a particularly good guide book to Sutton Hoo written by a ma
