A Journey with Runcorn

S. K Runcorn was a central figure in the early history of Paleomagnetism and he contributed a great deal to the way the subject developed. I joined him as a research student in the autumn of 1955.This was after the first polar wandering curves were published by Creer,Irving and Runcorn in 1954.the important development of this idea in the next three years was carried out by Runcorn's group;which in the winter of 1955-56 moved from Cambridge to Newcastle -on- tyne. The new data from North America lead to a reevaluation of the meaning of polar wandering when intercontinental comparisons were make. It became clear as the data accumulated from North America mostly by Runcorn and from Australia by Irving that in order to explain the data that movement between the continents must have taken place. I will describe what led Runcorn to change his mind in the spring of 1956.and what it was like to work with Keith in these interesting years.