" Everybody needed news. Everybody wanted news. News was known as ‘hot’. It was a society of conversation so that rumour and gossip passed quickly through the streets. At times of more than usual excitement papers and pamphlets were dropped in the street and were eagerly snatched up and passed from hand to hand. Anonymous publications, without a printer’s imprint, were widely circulated. One owner of a coffee-house trained his parrot to squawk ‘What’s the news?’ at his customers. "

― Peter Ackroyd , Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution (The History of England, #3)