Finding My Voice

"Christine Therese Nossiter was born on 3 August 1945 to John Harwin 'Jack' Nossiter (1916-2004) and Aileen Mary Henderson (1924-2005), She was the eldest of eleven children. Much of her youth was spent supporting her mother and tending to her siblings. Leaving school early, she worked for her accountant father but, encouraged by Vogue fashion photographer David Franklin, considered a career in modelling. Christine escaped to London in 1965, where she joined a lively and provocative cohort of expatriates contributing to the movement that Time magazine defined as the 'Swinging Sixties'. Her tribe included Richard Neville, John Cirttle, Collette St John and Ingrid Doleman. Initially working for YuIll's Travel Exchange, Christine eventually found enormous satisfaction advancing the cause of Release, the remarkable legal help-line service established by Caroline Coon and Rufus Harris (and supported financially by John Lennon and George Harrison). She travelled widely through Europe (cruising the Greek Islands on John Profumo's yacht), but was summoned home unexpectedly ti deal with her own family crisis. in 1971, Christine married Bruce Edelman, the handsome Macquarie Street Dental Specialist. Settling in Hunter's Hill, Bruce rose through the Council ranks to become Mayor. As Lady Mayoress, Christine burst onto the Sydney social scene, and was the darling of the society columns and paparazzi. She was respected for her tireless work on the Pied Piper Committee, and known for her joie de vivre. Christine's poignant, philosophical, often witty memoir chronicles a unique baby-boomer's odyssey, embracing the most dynamic decades leading to the new millennium. Her resilience, subsequently, when confronted with the reality of throat cancer (she has been mute since 2012), the death of her husband after a marriage of 50 years, and a second, now fatal diagnosis, makes finding her voice all the more vital."--Back cover.