Fleet acquires memoir from Joan Didion’s former assistant

Fleet has acquired a memoir from author Cory Leadbeater, a former assistant to celebrated US writer Joan Didion.

Editorial director Rhiannon Smith bought UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada to Kissing the 6 from Vanessa Kerr at Aevitas Creative Management. North American rights were pre-empted by Sara Birmingham at Ecco from Sarah Bowlin at Aevitas Creative Management.

The publisher describes the book as a memoir of trying to reconcile two parallels tracks of the author’s life during the nine years he worked as Joan Didion’s assistant—one the disintegration of his home life, his father’s incarceration, and his struggle with mental health, and the other the world that Didion’s transformative friendship and mentorship offered—exploring questions of creativity, loss, ambition and family.

Smith said: “From the very first pages of Cory’s manuscript I knew it was something exceptional. The conflict between the worlds he inhabits – his life with Joan and an unstable home life – is beautifully drawn. There is so much richness to his writing, Cory is a huge literary talent and I’m delighted to be bringing this book to UK readers.”

Leadbeater said: “I am thrilled to be joining the Fleet family, and in particular I am grateful for Rhiannon’s generous, clear-eyed vision of my work. This book is an ode to cognitive dissonance and uncertainty, and a tribute to the most unlikely, extraordinary relationship of my early life. It also tracks the economic and psychological perils that lurk for all those who strive to transcend their class. In the end, it is a book about love, and the salvation that lies only in the things that do not waver – poetry, art, tulips, chess – and I am delighted to be able to share it with a UK audience.”