Prehistory Summary

This book, published in 1978 and at times written as a journal and at other times written in first person narrative, is the story of an eventful summer late in the life of Charles Arrowby, a famous man of the British theatre - actor, playwright, director, and romancer of women.

Charles begins his journal with a paragraph of detailed observations about the sea. He comments in the following paragraph that that after writing the first paragraph, which he says was intended to be the first paragraph of his memoirs, that something happened that was so frightening that he stopped writing, can't bring himself to write about it, and hopes that after time and consideration he'll be calmer and more able to include it.

After commenting on the nature of, and necessity for, memoirs, Charles introduces himself as a retired but formerly extremely successful man...