Tag: sorry

Londoners’ air of permanent regret can seem bewildering and perverse. They apologize when they bump into you, when you bump into them, when they walk into doors, when they drop things, when they want to speak, when they are flustered, when they disagree, when they are brushing past you, when they cannot hear, when they can hear all too well and as a reflex when they cannot think of what else to say. But by no means does saying “sorry” mean the speaker is in fact sorry. Frequent apology is one of an arsenal of clever tricks Londoners employ to obscure their true feelings and remain opaque to outsiders and possibly even to themselves.