Wanted: a professional gossip
An ear-wigging, tongue-wagging, tittle-tattler is sought by The Complete Working Historic Estate of Shugborough.
Excellence in the fields of small talk, prattle and gibbering is essential while skills in artful snooping and grapevine development are desirable.
A small stipend and a gallon of small beer a day will be paid in return.
The advert got a report in today’s print Guardian (but I’m damned if I can find it in the online version). So I’m going to have to type it out.
Apparently, the successful candidate, dressed as a maid or footman, will be warned off idle chatter of goings-on in the gift shop and tea room, and confine her- or himself to the Anson family, ancestors of the present Lord Lichfield…
“This estate thrived for centuries on gossip”, said Richard Kemp, Shugborough’s general manager. “We want to bring that back to life and celebrate the role of the wittering scandal-monger. If it weren’t for gossip, much of our nation’s history might have been lost.”
The same estate appointed a live-in hermit a couple of years ago.