Very Important People

Very Important People, Ashley Mears, Princeton, £25
Somewhere between reportage and academic study, this study of super-rich party culture is riveting. Mears, a former model and sociologist, spent 18 months in the world of ‘models and bottles’ for first-hand experience of the glitzy, brutal world of club promoters and professional partiers. In this New Gilded Age, ‘girls’ are crucial to the functioning of this elite economy, and in Very Important People, Mears follows them, alongside promoters and their clients, on the international party circuit, from Miami to Monaco, picking apart this strange, exploitative world. Mears is an excellent storyteller, resulting in a book that’s well-informed and critical but also animated and engaging.