A World of Pain

Somebody asked me about my suffering the other day - it doesn't matter which one: family bereavements, broken love affairs, employment contracts critical to survival disappearing in a puff of smoke. Take your pick. There's always something.

But I was feeling remarkably resilient, determined, tough-minded, (perhaps falsely) brave, so I said: "Thank you, the agony is much abated."

Now, this, I believe, is a line attributed to the writer William Makepeace Thackeray, a precocious brat of 7 or 8, responding to a neighbour's kindly enquiry about his recent toothache.

Then again, it could be somebody else entirely. I remember coming across the story years ago in The Oxford Book Of Literary Anecdotes, but (like most of my once formidable library) I don't have it here with me, so can't check. You'll have to do the research for yourselves, and report back to me.