I was still kidding myself that we were in control – a pretence which, 10 minutes later, I was forced to abandon.
The implication, both nasty and ridiculous, is that Sir Tom Stoppard, born Tomas Straussler in the town of Zlin, has finally acknowledged that he isn't really English, has ended a long pretence which never convinced anyone, has faced up to foreignness.
Mathematical theories should be viewed as invitations to participate in games of pretence, in which we act as if certain mathematical entities exist.
Perhaps the world of art is just one vast pretence, in which we all take part since, after all, there is no real cost to it, except to those like Charles Saatchi, rich enough to splash out on junk?
Relief was given according to a prescribed quantity of labour, and was calculated to put an end to the "false and frivolous pretences" under which many people were believed to have found relief.
Speaking from the floor at the Society of Editors conference in Stansted, Essex, Meehan said: "The reality is the BBC only ever wants the pretence of partnerships, which serve its other purposes, or a partnership that's totally uneven and favours the BBC and actually causes us problems and diminishes our position.
There must be a distinction psychologically between this – sexual pleasure derived from the joint pretence of overpowerment, which is at all times mandated by the "overpowered" person – and sexual pleasure derived from the actual overpowerment of a person.
July 2011 was still the date to start the withdrawal, and 2014 was the date by which a pretence would be established of Afghan "sovereignty", despite the ongoing presence of tens of thousands, but not hundreds of thousands, of foreign troops.
To prevent their marriage the daughter devises an ill-fated plot in which the pretence of an affair between her boyfriend and the father's dumped girlfriend is intended to provoke jealousy and restore the status quo ante.
In the art world, there's still this pretence of solo authorship - which seems surprisingly old-fashioned for otherwise innovative works of art".
In his subtle, sometimes startlingly intelligent narrative, Deb is drawn to the idea of pretence, and to pretenders, of which he – writer, confidant, friend, provincial, global traveller – is one himself.
