I have been working for the last two years on Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street. And today it is finally on the shelves in the bookshops. The launch was at the wonderful Unity Books in Wellington on 14 December 2025.

To buy the book, visit your local bookstore, or buy a copy online from here: https://www.masseypress.ac.nz/books/mr-ward-s-map
Internationally it is on Amazon.

Here is a summary by Dr Jo Bailey of the design work she did on the book, studying the ‘design language’ of the maps and transforming it into a style to use in the book.

---

Reviews and publicity
There was a really great story written about the project here, published in the New Zealand Geographic (Nov/Dec 2025), written by Rebekah White:
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-man-who-drew-wellington/

Plus the books was chosen as one of the Listener’s 100 Best Books of 2025

I was on the radio!! I was on Radio New Zealand on 16 November, talking to Mark Amery on Culture 101 – check it out here. And yes – he did really say “my favourite book of the year”!

It was also reviewed by Bill Hastings on National Radio – here (scroll through to about 8mins 45).

And on the TV – on Seven Sharp!

There was also a book extract and interview published in the Sunday Star Times on 16 November 2025.

The book was also reviewed in Local Government New Zealand magazine.

---

Upcoming Events

• ‘Writing Mr Ward’s Map’, Public History Talk – at National Library and also on Zoom .
  Wednesday 03 December 2025, 12:10 pm to 1:00 pm
  National Library Auditorium (lower ground floor)  
  For more information or to register for the Zoom link see here.

---

These wonderful people helped me to fund the publication and writing of the book:
McKenzie Higham Architects, Institute of Cadastral Surveyors, Historic Places Wellington, LT McGuinness, ComplyWith, Chapman Tripp, Reflective Construction Law, Kairūri Community Trust and Local Landscape Architecture Collective, the Judith Binney Trust and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

---

I am also selling copies of the individual maps to fund the expense of the publication – follow this link to a page on my website to find more about that project.

Thanks!