Caitlin Johnstone wears her long hair in a lawless bun. Caitlin Johnstone once made a wage as a tap-dance instructor. Caitlin Johnstone is just the sort who won’t hear of you taking the train home and will drive you twenty clicks, because, well, look. Just get in the car. It’s Friday night and I’m taking the kids to their thing at Southland shopping centre anyway.

“Also, we can get more chit-chat in on the road, Razer. Tell me more about your divorce.â€

Caitlin Johnstone and the rhythms of her life in this outer Melbourne suburb feel to me so immediately familiar, it’s a snip to forget why I asked for a seat on her sofa. This was not to drink tea and compare a very comparable adolescence with mine. It was to learn how someone with two kids, an irregular CV and a tuxedo cat named Tangles came so quickly to be revered, and reviled, very widely by US readers.