During the 60 years I have made Nelson my home, recording and writing about its buildings, the truth of Ruskin’s view that nations inadvertently write their own autobiography in their art and architecture has become evident. Even at the scale of one small city, I think it is possible to draw conclusions about society from early colonial times to the present merely by looking around us. As a former conservation architect in England, I have written many illustrated articles about New Zealand since arriving in Nelson in 1964, culminating in material for my new book, Nelson Observed.