Preface • Family background and personality • School years (1910–1920) • Cambridge (1920–1935) First degree; Research studentship; Post-doctoral work; The Green Bed study; The universal stage; Stereographic projection; New skills; Departmental reorganization • Petrofabric research; Basic principles; Sander’s petrofabric method; Kinematic interpretation; Structural petrology at Cambridge • Understanding of Moine geology in the 1930s • Cambridge (1936–1946), Microfabric of the Moine schists. I; The ‘Tarskavaig Moines’; Other pre-war activity; War years; Petrofabrics of the Ben Vuirich granite; Dissonant voices; Microfabric of the Moine schists. II; A return to crystallography; Time for a change • Liverpool (1947), The appointment; A new environment; Catastrophe Aftermath • Bristol (1948–1952), The petrofabric controversy begins; Phillips prepares a rebuttal; A counter-example from Norway; Structural petrology short courses • An Australian lecture-tour: Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, Return to New South Wales; Outcome • Background to controversy; Developments in understanding of Moine geology during the 1950s and 1960s • Bristol (1953–1967) Stereograms for macroscopic data; New petrofabric difficulties; Cornish sea-floor studies; Further controversy; Gemstones • Retirement • Benefits of hindsight; The true significance of Sander’s b-axis; The explanation of ‘crossed-girdles’; The nature of the Moine Thrust; Unravelling the ‘Tarskavaig Moines’; The cause of Kvale’s confusion; Modern understanding of the cause of the lineation and fabrics measured by Phillips in the Moine rocks • Conclusion; Notes; References