In this autobiographical note I describe my childhood and early University days in London, including the initiation of research on the Cenomanian chalks of southern England under the supervision of the late Jake Hancock, who was to become the closest of friends and collaborators for nearly 40 years. Appointment to a teaching post in Oxford in 1967 led, eventually, to the directorship of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in 2003, until retirement in 2010. It was my good fortune to travel widely in connection with research on the Cretaceous across Europe and the United States, but particularly in KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, leading to a career long collaboration with Herbert Klinger (Cape Town). Collaboration has been the key to my research, collaboration with Jake and Herbie, and many others, including Bill Cobban, Andy Gale, Pierre Juignet, Herbert Summesberger, Irek Walaszczyk, and Willy Wright. These collaborations led to publications that dealt with ammonite faunas from The Antarctic Peninsula to Greenland, and from the United States Western Interior to Australia, as listed below.