Martin Roots was a tall, handsome man who came from the southern county of Dorset. He was an art student at Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1950s. Martin was an aesthete – he enjoyed good food, wine, Japanese prints and Cezanne – but he was also an early supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and participated in street marches in Newcastle in 1958 led by traditional Jazz bands. Roots was a painter but did not pursue an art career aggressively. After moving down in London in the 1960s, he taught art in secondary schools. He then returned to Dorset, lived on a small farm (Crate Hill) in the depths of the country, and taught art at Clayesmore (Iwerne Minster, Blandford) an independent co-educational boarding school, for many years. He was a much loved teacher and colleague. He married late in life and then developed heart trouble. He died suddenly from a heart attack in January 2010. His interpretation painting after Ingres was an art school exercise much favoured by tutors like Sir Lawrence Gowing as a means of making students look hard at the masterpieces of the past.