India, May 10 -- In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had ''a rough few years''. She described the sessions in a journal that she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne. For several months, Didion recorded conversations with the psychiatrist in detail. The initial sessions focused on alcoholism, adoption, depression, guilt, and the complexities of her relationship with her daughter, Quintana. The subjects evolved to include her work. There were discussions about her childhood; the misunderstandings and lack of communication with her parents; the question of legacy. The analysis would continue for more than a decade. A previously unpublished work from one of America's most iconic writers, Notes to John is that journal. Crafted with the singular intelligence and elegance that characterise all Didion's writing, it is an intimate account that reveals sides of her that were unknown....