Just Be British
Your AI writes emails like a hostage negotiator. This skill adds the greeting, the weather, an apology you don't mean, and 'no worries if not'.
Free. No sign-up. No worries if not.
One email, two ways to send it.
Tom, Thursday doesn't work. Friday 2pm. Gareth
What a British reader hears: Gareth is furious with Tom and may never speak to him again.
Hi Tom!
Hope you're well, and that you've survived the week so far. I think the heating's going on in our house this weekend, which feels like a defeat.
Ah, so sorry about this, but Thursday's turned into a bit of a nightmare on my end. [the trains / a client thing / the school run] Any chance Friday at 2 could work for you instead?
No worries at all if not, happy to find another time!
Cheers, Gareth
What are the three levels?
Polite
Greeting, one softener, one pleasantry, a warm sign-off.
Properly British
Everything in Level 1, plus the weather, an apology, and "no worries if not".
Apologising to a lamppost
The full works: three apologies, two pieces of context, a self-deprecating aside, and a sign-off that apologises for the email itself.
What does a British email actually mean?
| They wrote | They mean |
|---|---|
| "No worries if not!" | There are many worries if not. |
| "Just following up on this." | You have ignored me and I have noticed. |
| "As per my last email..." | Read it this time. |
| "With the greatest respect..." | I think you are wrong. |
| "That's an interesting idea." | That is a bad idea. |
| "I'll bear it in mind." | I have already forgotten it. |
The full decoder ships in the skill. Paste in an email and ask what it really means.
How do I install it?
- Download the zip. Do not unzip it.
- In Claude.ai, go to Settings → Skills → Upload skill.
- Choose the zip, then paste in a draft and ask Claude to make it British.
Unzip it into your skills folder:
unzip just-be-british.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/In ChatGPT, Grok or Gemini, paste the plain .md into custom instructions or at the start of a chat.
Read the full explainer on Claude Skills →Frequently asked questions
Just Be British is a free one-off. The rest of authority.md is skills built from the documented thinking of notable people, plus hand-built Tools for real work.