Some of our suspicions about the enigmatic Didion, such as her taciturn demeanour and observational eye, are confirmed in the memoir. The famed journalist never did small talk and remained circumspect with her words. Vanilla ice-cream eaten with a fork was apparently a favourite after dinner, while listening to poetry (particularly about California) proved a private comfort when melancholia set in.

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Didion famously personalised her reportage while also keeping her own writing under tight control. Such hallmarks of Didion’s prose are clearly imitated by Leadbeater, who similarly adopts – sometimes unevenly – a self-contained and idiomatic style to enrich his own memories of their time together. “No one knew what I did or felt except Joan, who seemed to understand it all,” he writes.

Episodic moments, from welcoming the birth of his daughter to the death of Didion in 2021, unfurl across The Uptown Local to a stirring and epiphanous end. After her death, Didion’s dictum to chronicle the incoherent and imprecise parts of life reverberates loudly for her former assistant. The magical truth finally extracted from a decade with her is that “accurate accounting matter[s] more than neat narrative”.

The Uptown Local shows Leadbeater embracing Didion’s maxim – even if it involves painfully recounting his own fractured life. Through expressive and exposing prose, he charts parallel journeys – one spiritually flourishing in Didion’s private home, the other emotionally unravelling thanks to his home life – that never reconcile in the end. The final lesson offered is Leadbeater’s own addendum to Didion’s famous words: sharing our stories, both of suffering and of joy, is what truly keeps us living.