A bride-to-be has been given a very public etiquette lesson after an email from her future mother-in-law, attacking her "uncouthness", went viral over the internet.

Carolyn Bourne, 60, wrote the message after her stepson Freddie took Heidi Withers to meet his family in Devon - and made it clear they had not got off on the right foot.

Mrs Bourne slammed the 29-year-old's "lack of grace" and branded her "an ideal candidate for the Ladette to Lady television series".

The situation got out of hand when a stunned Miss Withers, a PA, forwarded the stern email to some of her friends who, astonished by the tone, decided to forward it on.

The email has since gone viral on the internet, reaching tens of thousands of readers.

Mrs Bourne said Miss Withers' behaviour had been so rude it had left the family dog, Bomber, traumatised, depressed and anxious.

And in a stinging pay-off, she remarked: "One could be accused of thinking that Heidi Withers must be patting herself on the back for having caught a most eligible young man. I pity Freddie."

Mrs Bourne, who runs Whetman Pinks nursery near Dawlish in Devon, has refused to comment.

Etiquette teacher Liz Brewer, who has featured on Ladette to Lady, told Sky News it was a "catastrophic situation".

But she said both women involved are at fault, adding that Miss Withers should have known better than to email the letter off to her friends and that Mrs Bourne should have approached her son's girlfriend face-to-face.




Heidi Withers and Freddie Bourne

:: This is the full email from Mrs Bourne to Miss Withers:

It is high time someone explained to you about good manners. Yours are obvious by their absence and I feel sorry for you.

Unfortunately for Freddie, he has fallen in love with you and Freddie being Freddie, I gather it is not easy to reason with him or yet encourage him to consider how he might be able to help you.

It may just be possible to get through to you though. I do hope so.

Your behaviour on your visit to Devon during April was staggering in its uncouthness and lack of grace.

Unfortunately, this was not the first example of bad manners I have experienced from you.

If you want to be accepted by the wider Bourne family I suggest you take some guidance from experts with utmost haste.

There are plenty of finishing schools around. You would be an ideal candidate for the Ladette to Lady television series.

Please, for your own good, for Freddie's sake and for your future involvement with the Bourne family, do something as soon as possible.

Here are a few examples of your lack of manners:

When you are a guest in another's house, you do not declare what you will and will not eat - unless you are positively allergic to something.

You do not remark that you do not have enough food.

You do not start before everyone else.

You do not take additional helpings without being invited to by your host.

When a guest in another's house, you do not lie in bed until late morning in households that rise early - you fall in line with house norms.
"One could be accused of thinking that Heidi Withers must be patting herself on the back for having caught a most eligible young man. I pity Freddie."