"Much of what we know of medieval history is sheer gossip,

and later on it was the gossips like Voltaire, Samuel Pepys, William Hickey, and Madame de la Tour du Pin who gave us glimpses into people's private lives, thus making history intellectually honest as well as not boring."
"ABOUT eight years ago, Auberon Waugh (son of Evelyn) and I debated two high-priced lawyers at the Oxford Union. The motion, which we were defending, was, Resolved: Gossip has a place in journalism. We wiped the floor with them. The two mouthpieces got up first and read out a long list of people whose lives had been ruined by the yellow press of Fleet Street and its vicious gossip-mongers. Then we got up and went to work on them. I excused myself for arriving late by telling the audience that two stretch limos, presumably owned by the lawyers, had blocked access to the ancient town. (This was to remind the students how well paid lawyers are, although I did confess later that both had arrived by train.) Our main point was that without gossip, history as we know it would not exist." Taki Theodoracopulos