This study presents a new perspective on small talk and its crucial role in everyday communication. The new approach presented here is supported by analyses of interactional data in specific settings - private and public, face-to-face and telephone talk. They vary from gossip at the family dinner table and intimate 'keeping in touch' phone conversations, to interpersonally-focused talk in institutional settings, such as the government office and the university research seminar. Drawing on a range of methodological approaches, including Discourse Analysis and Pragmatics, Interpersonal Communication and Conversation Analysis, the author elevates small talk to a new status, as functionally multifaceted, but central to social interaction as a whole. *Each chapter in the book argues a perspective on small talk which is supported by analyses of interactional data in specific settings. These vary from gossip at the family dinner table and intimate 'keeping in touch' phone conversations to interpersonally-focused talk in institutional settings, such as the government office, the university research seminar, the hospice meeting, and the medical consultation. *The book also looks at service encounter interactions at the hairdresser, at the supermarket checkout, and during the driving lesson, as well as small talk by politicians, in film scripts and literature, and in automated telephone systems.*The contributors show how a range of methodological approaches, spanning Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics, Interpersonal Communication and Conversation Analysis, can be used to build a new representation of small talk.