Born of Armenian parents in 1924, Paul Malcolm lived his first 20 years in Bombay. He first visited Australia in 1944 while in the Merchant Navy, and settled there three years later. After exotic Bombay he found the Fremantle of 1947 dull, but went on to a much livelier Sydney, then to Broken Hill & in 1959 joined Weapons Research Establishment in South Australia. As a key figure in the Skylark rocket project, he describes how British scientists focused first on the upper atmosphere, and went on to other areas of interest, e.g. radiation from the sun and stars. Paul retired in 1984 and now enjoys an active lifestyle including walking, dancing, Tai Chi and lawn bowls.