“… and that's when it fell off in my hand.”

This is the fifth book in the hugely successful Georgia Nicolson series and Rennison’s first for HarperCollins. “… and that’s when it fell off in my hand.” continues to follow Georgia’s exploits with friends, boyfriends and family through her idiosyncratic and engaging diaries.

The appeal of the diaries stems from the meticulous work of researching teenage lifestyles, attitudes and conversational patterns, which Rennison has clearly thoroughly enjoyed. There are instantly recognisable stereotypes who are all the more entertaining for their predictability and the verbal duelling between Georgia and her friends is particularly fascinating.

Readers are also on familiar ground with the personalities and locations which have become established in the first four books. New readers have sufficient background material to become a part of this club – and, shrewdly on Rennison’s part, to invest in the earlier titles.

When I read each of the first four books in the series I frequently laughed out loud at the quirky humour and convoluted plots, which revelled in impressive verbal gymnastics and an admirable degree of ingenuity. However, this fifth offering, although still funny, seems to have rather overworked its formula and extended some facets of its storyline until they are dangerously thin – the Sex God seam in particular. Nevertheless, there is still much to amuse and a back list which will more than repay the efforts of those prepared to obtain it.