Kick the (Hyacinth) Bucket

The Insider has had more than a fair helping of in-law troubles over the years, from the time I braved an IRA bomb scare in Manchester to purchase Brussels sprouts to please my ex-husband’s mother (who then refused to serve “those ‘orrible yellow things”) to the family trip to Venice with the Italian, the date of which was changed after I had purchased non-refundable airline tickets. I’m not saying I spent the week wishing they would all fall in the Grand Canal, but due to matters beyond my control, I would not have been there to fish them out if they had.

So I can feel the pain of Heidi Withers, whose stepmother-in-law-to-be Carolyn Bourne sent a withering e-mail regarding Heidi’s “poor manners”. Heidi forwarded the e-mail to her friends, who then forwarded it to their friends, and so on, until the e-mail “went viral” becoming a news (or at least a filler) item around the globe. Bourne and her husband have refused to comment,