Although I spent much of my pre-school and school years wandering around derelict industrial sites in Scotland’s central belt, I was also exposed to rural life on a regular basis during the school holidays, when I attended Lanark Auction market with my father. I had developed an interest in geography at school and decided to study it at the University of Strathclyde’s Geography Department. It was there that my interest in soils grew and was nurtured by Donald Davidson but it was a visit to the department by John Bibby, one of the senior soil surveyors in the Soil Survey of Scotland, that finally opened my eyes to the possibility of combining geography and soil science by joining the Soil Survey. Being able to wander the Scottish countryside, far from the industrial wasteland, and map soils seemed like the ideal job. Indeed, Bob Glentworth, Head of the Soil Survey of Scotland, often told his field staff that they were lucky to be getting paid to enjoy themselves digging holes and mapping soils. So, in 1980, armed with a degree in geography and biology and with some knowledge of hydrology, geomorphology, pedology, biogeography and plant science, I applied for and was accepted as a junior soil surveyor in the Soil Survey Department of the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research. Thus, my training in how to survey soils began.