FROM THE EDITOR

Christmas is such a weird time, representing – as cookie-cutter advertising jingles proclaim – a time for family and friends, giving and receiving, drinking your fill and stuffing your face and contemplating another year older and wiser, ho ho ho.

Back in the real world, for me, it also signals multiple deadlines and strain before time off, added financial pressure, homesickness for extended family drinking mulled wine by the fire in Ireland (though I have my own family here now), and involuntary parties with in-laws and distant acquaintances that are laced with wine, small talk and forced laughter to mask the low-level tension and awkwardness. But, there is always pavlova. Thank you Christmas, for pavlova.

It’s hardly the most relaxing time of year, and the countdown has begun. Tick, tock. There won’t be a day that goes by between now and December 25 that the C word (Christmas, that is) isn’t uttered at least once, if not a hundred times.

Our cover star Catherine Chidgey’s new novel,

The Beat of The Pendulum, is rooted in day-to-day life. The mundane exchanges. The doctor’s visits and the songs on repeat. She has exalted the humdrum hours and minutes and immortalised every day of her life for one year. This was the polar opposite approach to her previous book, The Wish Child, taking as that did, 13 years to complete. So maybe there’s a lesson in that – to bring on the Christmas chaos and custom, no matter the stress and silliness. It is the end of another year, and should be celebrated for that, as the passing of time, the beating of the pendulum. See page 6.