Look, I'm not growing a beard for fun, you know. It's because my face hurts after being assaulted in the streetI am walking around the park, lost in a fog of preoccupation, when I run into someone I know. "Hey," he says. "Nice beard."My first instinct is to ask "Where?" but then I realise he means me. "It's not a beard," I tell him, feeling my face uncertainly.The whole thing began a few weeks ago, after I got punched in the mouth by a 15-year-old in the street. I was left with a messy, rectangular wound above my lip; the imprint, I think, of a ring. The next day it was swollen and sore, and would have been impossible to shave around, so I didn't. Two days later it looked ...