Introduction, M J Le Bas • Historical origins of the Geological Society’s Journal, M J S Rudwick • Uniformitarianism today: plate tectonics is the key to the past, B F Windley • Early Precambrian crustal development: changing styles of mafic magmatism, R P Hall and D J Hughes • Unravelling dates through the ages: geochronology of the Scotting metamorphic complexes, G Rogers and R J Pankhurst • W Q Kennedy, the Great Glen Fault and strike-slip motion, B J Bluck • P-T-t evolution of orogenic belts and the causes of regional metamorphism, M Brown • The development of Early Palaeozoic global stratigraphy, W S McKerrow • Charles Lapworth and the biostratigraphic paradigm, R A Fortey • Dinantian (Lower Carboniferous) biostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy in the British Isles, N J Riley • Time from fossils: S S Buckman and Jurassic high-resolution geochronology, J H Callomon • Vertebrate fissure faunas with special reference to Bristol Channel Mesozoic faunas, RJG Savage • Triassic pebbles, derived fossils and the Ordovician to Devonian palaeogeography of Europe, L R M Cocks • Sedimentary structures: Sorby and the last decade, J R L Allen • Structure and origin of limestone, B W Sellwood • Flood basalts versus central volcanoes and the British Tertiary Volcanic Province, G P L Walker • Magmatic differentiation, M Wilson • Granite magmatism, M P Atherton • Hydrothermal orefields and ore fluids, A H Rankin • Carbonate magmas, D K Bailey •