'Bob Hyde was an exceptionally talented student of the painting school but for those of us who were motivated by the need to earn a living after art school, the fine arts seemed a perilous path. Bob was made of sterner stuff. Cezanne was Bob's favoured painter and, when we shared a small flat, it was a print of Cezanne's 'The Card Players' that hung on the wall of the kitchen where we spent so much time cooking, laughing, eating and talking.

'I couldn't say that Bob talked about painting to the exclusion of everything else, in fact he didn't get into the sort of earnest discussion about art that was going on all around us. Bob was the sort of painter who painted rather than talked. When, having graduated from St Martin's School of Art, he became a waiter at the Studio Club it was because he didn't have to start work until early evening, and so had the daylight hours in which to paint. And yet, when at about that timeI introduced him to someone as a 'painter', he corrected me and said: 'No, I'm a waiter'. I admired him for that response and remembered it ever after. It demonstrated the depth of self-discipline and determination that was the essence of his character. I have no doubt at all that had Bob Hyde not died so tragically young he would have become a major talent in today's art world.' - Len Deighton