The collection consists of copy diaries c1949-1990, copy typescript and autograph correspondence (with index) and copy miscellaneous papers (draft typescript poems, diary of holiday at Ippedes, 'A nice day in the country: a private record' 22 June 1957, and other papers)
In a note written at the time of the original deposit at Exeter in 1992, John Fowles explains that he has kept a 'sort of diary' since the late 1940s. The early volumes were handwritten, but from the early 1960s the entries are typed. The diaries, called for a time 'disjoints' ('disjointed thought, notions, occurrences'), were kept erratically and were not intended as a complete literary or historic record of Fowles's life and times. However, Fowles is rightly aware of their potential value to readers of his work and he has also spoken publicly about their importance to him as a writer. He suggests the diaries contain self-truths not found elsewhere in his published writing and has indicated his wish that they one day be published. The entries are fragmentary records of events, encounters and observations which are best described in Fowles's own words as 'dabs of colour', or a 'clutter of mosaics' - Wormholes (1998).