Well, this past week I had occasion to pop to his house to chat about a mutual art project and to catch up as we've not seen each other very much during the pandemic.
Lyndon lives in a delightful old listed cottage surrounded by sheds and garages full of mechanical wonders. His day job is aerial surveying and he's more often in the air than on the ground these days. His work also takes him all over the world. But his deep fascination for mechanical things has led to him becoming an expert engineer and self-styled 'follyologist'.
As a huge fan of great British artists like W Heath Robinson and Rowland Emmett, he delights in making life-sized machines that make people smile. One of his current projects is a wicker-bodied racing car - he taught himself basketry in order to complete the job - and he has previously made a wicker body for a touring car and a propeller-driven three wheeler.
The minute you arrive at his house you get a sense of what you're in for. The spaceship outside the front door is a good indicator. But then you spot the Lancaster bomber gun turrets staring down at you from the top of a shed. This really is a place with a surprise around every corner.
He also owns an extraordinary range of vehicles from Model T Fords to amphibious cars to his own bizarre creations, such as Tritania, a floating bath chair that takes to the Thames during the Henley Regatta most years.
I first met Lyndon around five years ago when I interviewed him for a show that I used to host on local radio with ex-BBC producer Andy Aliffe. We've been firm friends since and have collaborated on some interesting projects.
For example, during lockdown, Lyndon built some delightfully silly social distancing devices which I then illustrated in a kind-of W Heath Robinson style. They met with a good response wherever they were published. We're now working on a couple of new projects together so watch this space ...
We've also spent hours discussing the very nature of eccentricity itself. What is it? What defines an eccentric? And we both agree that it's not about dressing up in top hats and weird clothing. That's cosplay or dandyism or simply a desire to be noticed. Many eccentrics are actually quite shy and retiring sorts who want no attention at all. They just want to be left alone to follow their passions.
Eccentricity is all about 'ploughing your own furrow' and living your life the way you choose to live it, whether that means hunched over a microscope your whole life studying lichen, or obsessing about growing the world's largest Brussels Sprout. When Lyndon proposed me for membership I was somewhat taken aback as I didn't think I was all that eccentric. 'True eccentrics never do,' he explained. 'But let's be honest, Steve - you're not exactly normal are you? You challenged how policing was done when you were a bobby. You filled woods with monsters when other people locked themselves away during the Covid lockdowns. You're a polymath and you live how you want to live rather than how society expects you to. That's eccentricity.'
I'll take that.
Lyndon is an amiable, charming and delightful man who just wants to make the world a happier place.
That's exactly my philosophy for life too.
And if that's what eccentricity is, let's have more of it.
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