'A History of Canberra' opens with an anecdote concerning 19-year-old James Brown, convicted of assault and theft in Edinburgh in 1834, being assigned as a convict labourer to the owner of Lanyon. James Brown graduated to being a ticket-of-leave man in 1839, and then freedom in 1842. Generations later his descendant – the author Nicholas Brown, known as Nick – graduated with an honours degree, and later doctorate, in history at ANU. From the ancestor who got nicked, to his descendent Dr Nick – it’s a very Australian, and very Canberran, story. Brown hopes this opening “is not too indulgent”. It is exactly right, in fact – a reminder that we come from and are real people, not just a collection of institutions manifesting and managing that idea, “Australia”.

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Review by SMH journalist Chris Wallace