“Don't forget the meatballs, Mum”

You've made it sound too easy,” complained Sheila as she perched on the corner of my desk reading the draft of my previous article on foreign wives [BMJ 13 April]. Being one herself with seemingly insoluble domestic problems she had a perfect right to criticise. “It's all very well getting lyrical over victories being fought for but what about the sheer teethgrinding everyday struggle to communicate in a language with five ‘e's and having to remember the gender of a chair and always missing out on the best jokes? And what about the marriages wrecked by interfering mothers in law; and what about the culturally …