Julian Orbach is an author and lecturer in architectural history. He was architectural adviser to the Victorian Society in 1975-7 and wrote the Blue Guide to Victorian Buildings in Britain, published in 1987. He worked on the listing of historic buildings in England until he moved to Wales in 1987 where he was similarly employed by Cadw. He has been a member of the Historic Buildings Advisory Council for Wales, the Cathedrals and Churches Commission of the Church in Wales and the Fabric Advisory Committee for St Davids Cathedral. He co-founded the eco community at Brithdir Mawr in Pembrokeshire in 1993 and lived there until 2002. He has three grown up children - Martha, Reuben and Agnes and three grandchildren, and since 2002 has been with his partner Kate Pawsey.
While in Wales, he co-wrote three titles in the Buildings of Wales series, Pembrokeshire (2004), Carmarthenshire & Ceredigion (2006) and Gwynedd (2009). Then in 2009 he moved to Somerset to revise Sir Nikolaus Pevsner's volume on South and West Somerset in the Buildings of England series. When this was published in 2014 he moved to Bradford-on Avon to revise Pevsner's Wiltshire volume in the same series. This was published in 2021. He has been President of the Somerset Archaeological & Natural History Society. As a consultant he has written reports on historic buildings for private clients, local authorities and church congregations. He is available for commissions, having a fee of £350 per day or £50 per hour plus travel expenses, and also for lectures, at £150 plus travel expenses, this fee negotiable for small organisations.