John Michell R.I.P.

It’s with real sadness that I announce the death at seventy-six of one of my long-time heroes, the megalithic adventurer and Visionary author John Michell. According to his partner Christine Rhone, Michell died ‘peacefully and painlessly’ in the very early hours of April 24th. In the coming centuries, John Michell will most likely be best remembered as one of the Premier Heathenizers of the postwar years, his 1969 book debut THE VIEW OVER ATLANTIS bringing forth a vast landscape Vision that resonated so thoroughly with the Hippies that its author became, temporarily at least, considered something of a Rock God himself. He was a great figure, no less. Charging about the megalithic countryside accompanied by gangs of younger cohorts, or becalmed and lost amidst deep calculations before some great Land’s End stone alignment, John Michell epitomized the very English need to ‘see for one’s self’. Unlike archaeologists of the time, Michell spent vast hours in the field and knew his subject like no other, and the thoroughness of his methods filled his readers with trust. I have no doubt that he’s right now sizing up the very fabric of the next stage through which he must pass, shocked at certain things, but having most of his other suspicions confirmed. The world is a great deal poorer for his passing, and I raise my cup to John Michell for his dogged persistence and refusal to fall off the Trip. Sir, I salute ye! 

JULIAN
27.4.09CE