‘Grey rocking’ to repel your tormentors? We Brits have been doing it for years | Emma Brockes

For those whose cultural backgrounds incline towards passive aggression, this self-preservation tactic is almost too natural

There is a technique for dealing with hostile people that maps almost exactly on to the British national character. Do you know about this? I only recently discovered it, lagging behind followers of therapy Instagram and those seeking urgent strategies to survive the holiday season. It is called - with due deference to how Alan Partridge this sounds - grey rocking". But it might as well, for its evasive politeness, be called the up to a point, Lord Copper" approach to neutralising aggressors.

If you've ever smiled blandly in the face of someone you violently dislike; if you've ever done a flat, oh, wow", or right" to everything they say; if you've ever given the sketchiest details when they ask what you're up to - then, along with millions of other Britons, you have probably been unwittingly grey rocking it like a pro.