My friend Joan Didion wouldn’t have wanted her therapy notes to be published
Letter: Responding to an editorial about the publication of Notes to John, Clare Reihill writes that the late American writer never left anything to chance
April 2025
Notes to John by Joan Didion review – an invasion of privacy
I’ve never kept a diary. But if I had, I’d want it destroyed when I die
Emma Beddington
The Guardian view on posthumously publishing Joan Didion: goodbye to all that
‘I dealt with everyone at a distance’: what do Joan Didion’s therapy diaries reveal about guilt, motherhood and writing?
February 2025
Literary gold … or betrayal of trust? Joan Didion journal opens ethical minefield
Joan Didion’s ‘astonishingly intimate’ diary to be published
January 2025
Joan Didion and Mike Davis understood LA through its fires. Even they couldn’t predict this week
Adrian Daub
Fire is an inextricable part of the region’s identity, as the writers knew. But the way this divided city burns has been transformed
November 2024
Eve Babitz and Joan Didion may be dead. But their feud isn’t
A new book on the Los Angeles authors leaves no petty stone unturned as it explores their fraught friendship
Observer book of the week
Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik review –the seductress and the sphinx
This account of the purported bondbetween Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, two fascinating chroniclers of late 20th-century America, is titillating but diminishes both writers
Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik review – friendship and rivalry in LA
The journalist and author of Hollywood’s Eve makes no pretence of impartiality as she charts the difficult relationship between two chroniclers of California
August 2024
How many clothes do you actually need? There’s a magic number …
What I learned about loss and joy from Joan Didion, my mentor 60 years my senior
Cory Leadbeater
July 2024
Five of the best
Five of the best novels about celebrity culture
The Uptown Local by Cory Leadbeater review – exploding the Joan Didion myth
June 2024
Observer book of the week
The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne review – a Hollywood insider with an outsider’s eye
Book of the day
The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne review – Hollywood tales
April 2024
Fashion Statement newsletter
Princess Anne, Larry David and the rise of the accidental style icon
From the Curb star’s smart-casual look to the royal’s trademark wraparound sunglasses, the concept comes up time and again – but is it a patronising assumption that their style is accidental?
October 2023
The World According to Joan Didion by Evelyn McDonnell review – bits and pieces of a literary pioneer
A ‘fangirl’’s fragmented study of the great US author has a disparate and magpie approach that never coheres into a satisfying whole
April 2023
What we're reading
What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in April
Authors, critics and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments
