The many appreciations and tributes to the late Jeremy Boissevain carried in this paper show the high regard in which this eminent friend of Malta was held by all who had the good fortune of coming in touch with him.

His Friends of Friends and Saints and Fireworks are now classics in Maltese anthropology.

I was lucky to meet him at the university where he used to chat freely to all and sundry during the breaks at the canteen.

He was a couple of years my senior. We were never formally introduced but he seemed to know me – or about me – possibly because one of my students (Paul Sant Cassia) had switched from architecture to anthropology.

In my lectures on urban studies I always used to emphasise the social implications of physical planning and the fact that people had relationships and were not merely numbers.

At one time, Jeremy told me that he was interested in a rather quaint old house in Naxxar and would I go along with him and his wife to have a look at it. I am not usually thrilled by “houses of character” but I found this house quite charming and the alterations he and his wife had in mind were quite feasible.

He took it but I never saw the finished product.

His energy knew no bounds and he considered Malta as being his adoptive country.