Digging Up Milton : Cillian Press Limited : 9781909776104 : 1909776106 : 01 Oct 2015 : Historical Fiction. This darkly humorous novel vividly captures the boisterous, bawdy life of the 18th century London streets in a tale of greed, guilt and a paradise lost. London, 1790: John Milton, one of Britain's greatest poets, has been dead for over a century. Lizzie Grant, gravedigger, wife and entrepreneur, is very much alive. When Milton's bones surface at St Giles' Church in London's Cripplegate, illiterate yet enterprising Lizzie seizes the opportunity to make her mark on history. But Lizzie hasn't accounted for Milton's power - as a hero, a revolutionary and a literary genius. Amongst circulating body parts and surrounded by hypocrisy, Lizzie's dreams start to unravel. In 1790 it seems a lot of people want a piece of Milton.