Finding My Voice An irreverent memoir by Christine Edelman

Christine’s grandfather, Harold Nossiter was the first Australian to skipper a yacht around the world under an Australian flag. Adventure and self determination are in Christine’s DNA. 

Christine studied acting at the Independent Theatre and was encouraged into modelling by Vogue photographer David Franklin, but she escaped to London in 1965, where she joined a lively and provocative cohort of expatriates during the ’Swinging Sixties.’ Her tribe included Richard Neville and Louise Ferrier, Richard Wherrett, Jenny Kee, Robert Hughes, John Crittle, 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 to deal with her own family crisis. 

Christine married Bruce Edelman, the handsome Macquarie Street Dental Specialist in 1971. Settling in Hunter’s Hill, Edelman rose through the Council ranks to become the Mayor. As Lady Mayoress, Christine burst onto the Sydney social scene during the 80s, and was the darling of the society columns and paparazzi. She was respected for her tireless work on the Piped 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, when confronted with the reality of throat cancer (she has been mute since 2012), the death of her husband, and a second, now fatal diagnosis, makes FINDING HER VOICE all the more vital.

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