ABSTRACT
In the field I was constantly probed for information by very skilled gossipers and while some information was given away, this was kept to a minimum. My position on both estates was tenuous enough without being caught gossiping. However it was possible to turn this questioning to great advantage in an analysis of the effects of social and geographical mobility on the estates. It became apparent that some people were gossiped about more than others, and I was questioned about them more intensively, whereas other families were virtually unknown and seemed to be socially insignificant. Nobody asked me about them. After my resolve not to gossip as far as possible about estate households with other estate households I not unnaturally found that it was a far slower process in gathering the kind of information in which I was interested. I was no longer prepared to swop gossip and consequently people did not so often gossip with me. I attempted to get round this problem by developing key informants from whom I systematically collected their entire knowledge about other households on the estate. The analysis that follows is based on (a) information gathered indirectly whilst interviewing more formally and (b) information from the dozen female informants I interviewed specifically about gossip over a period of time.
