The Story of Storytelling: from the Evolution of Language to the Invention of Writing

Storytelling is what makes us human. This bravura work of popular science explains why.

David Clifford explores our nature as storytelling creatures with imagination and passion. We begin in the distant past, before homo sapiens: how did our ancestors develop language, figure out how to scavenge for meat efficiently, learn to co-parent, and keep their social groups safe from dangerous grifters? The answer to all of these questions is: by telling stories. This was the driving force behind all the progress that followed: without storytelling, there would be no humanity, no society, art, politics, science or technology.

The humans of deepest prehistory must have used narrative to inspire extraordinary migrations to new settlements across the world. As larger social groups began to form, people came to treasure their origin stories, which define who we are, what we overcame together, and why our community matters. In time, storytelling contributed powerfully to the origins of visual art, decorative carved objects, and vast structures such as Göbekli Tepe in Turkey or Stonehenge in England. Eventually, record-keeping emerged among the newly wealthy, and one day, someone must have used this method of tallying goods and riches to note down a story they wanted to remember. So writing was born.

David Clifford draws on his knowledge of evolutionary theory, prehistory, anthropology, primatology, ethology, psychology, linguistics and literature to reveal the most profound aspects of our species. Ranging from the earliest spoken words to the moment they were first written down, this is a joyful, informative celebration of our species’ extraordinary powers of storytelling.