FT267

John Michell (1933–2009) lived a life that was richly multifaceted, as we all should but rarely do. He was a sacred geometer, a Platonist, and a fortean; an enthusiast of the delightfully eccentric and of the radic­ally traditional; a prophet of the New Jerusalem, the Holy Grail and UFOs.

Michell was able to reconcile all of his seemingly contradictory pursuits because of the generous breadth of his vision. He saw that the world and its inhabitants are endlessly diverse, and he knew that all human attempts to categorise are absurd and doomed to failure. All we can do is delight in the merry dance of phenomena, and trust that all categorisers will, in the end, come to see the folly of their ways.