COMEDIAN Les Dawson never really had a good word to say about the mother-in-law.

But Sally Manning drew so much inspiration from hers that she wrote a book based on things she said.

“She had an idiom for every occasion,” she said.

The result is a book featuring many of the phrases uttered over the years by Olive Manning, who is now 84 and living in Mere Court, Knutsford.

“She was really thrilled when I went to speak to her about it,” she said.

Sally said she asked her mother-in-law to remember as many mnemonics and idioms as she could from her youth so that they did not get lost in the midst of time.

“I’m just fascinated by mnemonics and I always have been,” she said. The book’s title refers to the spelling of beautiful - Big Elephants Are Useful To Indians For Unloading Logs.

But Sally’s favourite mnemonic is ‘righty tighty, lefty loosy’.

“I use that if I’m thinking about loosening a radiator valve, for example,” she said.

Sally, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, is donating a proportion of the profits to the MS Society.

She said she was now working on a book about euphemism and double-speak, and said being a writer suited her.

“I suffer from fatigue and I need to shut myself off for periods during the day,” she said.

Sally, 49, grew up in Woodvale Road, Knutsford, but moved to London when she married Garry Manning, a publisher.

They now live in Bath.

Her mum, the late Barbara Phibbs, owned and ran the Domino gift shop in King Street, Knutsford, for 28 years.

Last week Sally said her favourite idiom was one she often repeated to her own daughters Rosie, 22, and Caitlin, 18.

“Don’t dream your life, live your life,” she said.

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