The Christesen Romance

by Judith Armstrong

An unusual and interesting biography focusing not on an individual but on the relationship and life-partnership of a couple - Nina and Clem Christesen. Clem Christesen was the founder of Meanjin, one of Australia's leading literary and political magazines for more than fifty years. Nina, who was born in pre-revolutionary St Petersburg, was the founder of the first department of Russian in Australasia and was in contact with such dissidents as Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov. This is a unique portrait of Australian cultural life in the crucial formative years of the 1950s and 1960s, told through a remarkable personal story.

237 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Judith Armstrong grew up in Melbourne. After marriage and the birth of two children, she did a PhD and taught Russian literature and culture at the University of Melbourne, where she published five academic books. The last of these, The Christesen Romance, was short–listed for the Age Book of the Year.
She now writes full-time. Her works include
* fiction - The French Tutor (2003) and War and Peace and Sonya (2011), and
* non-fiction - The Novel of Adultery, Macmillan, London, (1976); In the Land of Kangaroos and Goldmines, (tr. from French of Oscar Comettant) Rigby, (1980); Essays to Honour Nina Christesen, (ed. with Rae Slonek) Australian, International Press, Melbourne, (1980); The Unsaid Anna Karenina, Macmillan, London, (1988);
The Christesen Romance, MUP, (1996)(double biography of Nina and Clem Christesen; shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year 1996); Anya, Countess of Adelaide, Ryan Publishing, (1997)(factional story of the wife of Charles Rasp, founder of BHP); The Cook and the Maestro: the story of Stefano and Sergio de Pieri, Lothian, (2001); and
The Maestro's Table, Text (2006)

Judith Armstrong also writes reviews or articles for newspapers, magazines and opera programs, and has recently been commissioned to write for the Stork theatre in Melbourne. Her stage-adaptations of Crime and Punishment and Anna Karenina sold out and had to be extended. She speaks at functions, festivals, libraries, fund-raisers and on radio, and has escorted several tour-groups to Europe and Russia.

Her most recent book, War & Peace and Sonya, is a novel; it has been reviewed in the Age, the Australian, the Australian Book Review and several other places, including online at ANZLitLovers.com