Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) of a certain age will agree that the most abrasive relationship in British astronomy in the second half of the twentieth century was that between Fred Hoyle and Martin Ryle. Their academic arguments, conducted in the most public manner imaginable, lasted nearly three decades. Until both became older and wiser in the mid-1970s, astronomy at the University of Cambridge went through a period of strong polarization as a result of these two prima donnas failing to coexist more harmoniously. The destructive and competitive forces that they unleashed harmed the standing of astronomy and cosmology at Cambridge, particularly when their public disagreements became widely reported. To put this dramatic and highly significant interlude in context, it is essential to understand the background and personality of Martin Ryle.

Ryle engaged fully with all his students. Always available and seldom travelling, he admired the laboratory, his staff and his students. His door was always open; invariably, he took his morning coffee and afternoon tea with the rest of his group. Unlike Hoyle, Ryle regularly added his name to his student's research papers, not to grab personal credit, but to give weight to their future curricula vitae. Hoyle's immense output includes only a handful of papers authored jointly with students, and he seldom read or corrected their drafts. Ryle was the complete opposite in this respect.

A yawning gulf separated the social and family backgrounds of Hoyle and Ryle.