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Wed by the Wayside: A True Story of Love, Family and Community
Can marriage be an act of rebellion? This is the story of Wayside Chapel, a quiet revolution from a side street of Kings Cross, Sydney.
Alana Valentine's mother, Janice, was remarried in 1969 at the Wayside Chapel, run by the charismatic and controversial minister Ted Noffs and his wife Margaret. Many years after her mother died, Alana found the wedding photo, and the longing to speak to her mother about that day drove Alana to seek out others who had begun new chapters of their lives at Wayside.
What Alana found was a remarkable group of people, whose stories are told here with kaleidoscopic effect. Brought together, these Wayside stories reshape our understanding of this country's social history, from a uniquely Australian institution where people have been welcomed for decades in spite of social taboos around race, class, religion and sexuality.
Told with grace and insight by one of Australia's most acclaimed playwrights, Wed by the Wayside is a deeply personal quest, as Alana searches for her own origin story. It is also a celebratory ode to the different, the discarded, the broken and the brave who changed the world from Kings Cross.
Alana Valentine's mother, Janice, was remarried in 1969 at the Wayside Chapel, run by the charismatic and controversial minister Ted Noffs and his wife Margaret. Many years after her mother died, Alana found the wedding photo, and the longing to speak to her mother about that day drove Alana to seek out others who had begun new chapters of their lives at Wayside.
What Alana found was a remarkable group of people, whose stories are told here with kaleidoscopic effect. Brought together, these Wayside stories reshape our understanding of this country's social history, from a uniquely Australian institution where people have been welcomed for decades in spite of social taboos around race, class, religion and sexuality.
Told with grace and insight by one of Australia's most acclaimed playwrights, Wed by the Wayside is a deeply personal quest, as Alana searches for her own origin story. It is also a celebratory ode to the different, the discarded, the broken and the brave who changed the world from Kings Cross.
317 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 4, 2024
3 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 12, 2025
Alana Valentine seeks to reconnect with her long-lost mother through collecting the stories of other couples married at the Wayside Chapel, home of her mum's second wedding, and the place of work of controversial minister Ted Noffs.
This is a frustrating listen, where the author struggles for objectivity, seeking to demonise any members of the church who were keen to encourage Noffs to maintain any kind of theological orthodoxy, while creating a hagiography of the man himself. At the same time, there is a false dichotomy created between the idea of having a social conscience and having orthodox Christian views.
Late in the book, Valentine gives a brief hat tip to the reality that many of the people she hatchetted were acting out of sincere convictions, but it was too little, too late. It's a depressing vision of a church that has sought to embrace all of humanity, but in doing so has actually created a truly exclusivist vision that denies the authenticity of every religion, creating a meaningless hodgepodge.
This is a frustrating listen, where the author struggles for objectivity, seeking to demonise any members of the church who were keen to encourage Noffs to maintain any kind of theological orthodoxy, while creating a hagiography of the man himself. At the same time, there is a false dichotomy created between the idea of having a social conscience and having orthodox Christian views.
Late in the book, Valentine gives a brief hat tip to the reality that many of the people she hatchetted were acting out of sincere convictions, but it was too little, too late. It's a depressing vision of a church that has sought to embrace all of humanity, but in doing so has actually created a truly exclusivist vision that denies the authenticity of every religion, creating a meaningless hodgepodge.
November 13, 2024
A lovely read - stories of people married at a progressive church. Alana's an engaging writer and was very raw and vulnerable with her personal story.
Read by Mahli
Read by Mahli
May 13, 2025
The author’s commentaries required tighter editing. The book would have benefited from a greater focus on the wedding stories. The flow of the book is marred by disjointed commentary.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews