‘That is the ugliest effing skirt I’ve ever seen” is among the most memorable lines from the 2004 version of Mean Girls, uttered by high-school queen bee Regina George. The musical remake, in cinemas now, inherits the original film’s bitchiness and its iconic Burn Book – a scrapbook filled with cruel gossip about students and staff.
Gossip beyond school is less brazen but perhaps more insidious. As these five books suggest, gossipy networks pervade communities of all sizes, from small towns to the British political system.
