It’s always better to tell a half-truth than a half-lie. - Ben Aaronovitch

You don’t actually know enough about me to insult me properly.

Have you ever been to London?" I asked.
"No," said Ash. "I've never even been in town before. Our dad doesn't hold with that sort of thing."
"Don't worry, it's basically just like the country," I said. "Only with more people.

As a typical Londoner, Gurcan had a high tolerance threshold for random thoughtlessness; after all, if you live in the big city there’s no point complaining that it’s a big city, but even that tolerance has its limit.