Gossip

Toby Young, in this week's Spectator, refers to the gossip that took place in diplomatic circles as brought to the public notice by Wikileaks; it may make diplomats in future be a bit more careful what they say. It seems that gossip is what they are most interested in. Young goes on to say how, when he reached a certain hieght in the American world of publishing, he expected influential people he got to know, around a dinner table at some function or other, to talk about important issues of the day: instead, they gossipped. And it was always about people on a higher rung of the ladder professionally or artistically or those on the same level - never about people on a lower level. According to Toby Young, people who gossip only gossip about people like themselves or those above them. He added that when one of the company left the room to go to the lavatory, they instantly started gossipping about him.
I had a similar experience with a group of writers. I was once a member of The Writers' Guild of GB (waste of my time and money); they decided to hold a meeting of Welsh members in Cardiff. Some well-known writers came down from London to help out (or show off). I can't recall what we talked about but I do recall a well known writer arriving late and saying, in a very important-sounding way that he was late because he had been to the BBC in Cardiff to talk about a script he had there. He wrote scripts for the series about London police forces (can't remember the title). After a while one fellow got up, excused himself, saying he had be somewhere etc. and he left. Instantly, everyone began talking about him. Or, rather, asking about him: "Who is he? Anybody know what he does?" No one knew anything about him. They all appeared quite put out by that. Which is when I decided I was going to stay to the end, boring as it all was, because none of them there knew who I was. I waited until the very end before rushing to the toilet for a much wanted pee.