A Twitter backlash made me rethink what I share on social media – and where I stay on tour

After complaining about the cleanliness of a hotel, I was inundated with furious tweets about my apparent snobbery, writes Jenny Eclair. The stress of it made me ill

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A strange thing happened to me last week, I made myself ill, so ill, I convinced myself I had Covid and did a lateral flow test (negative). I still wasn’t convinced, so I sent off for a PCR test but by the time it arrived I was feeling fine, the awful headache had gone and my breathing was less laboured.

Eventually the penny dropped, I was stressed, and stress had triggered a thumping migraine and accompanying palpitations. But why was I so stressed? Well, it’s a bit of a saga and the stress was sort of self-inflicted but certainly not deliberate.

What happened is this. I’d been to The Isle of Wight and complained on Twitter about the standards of a certain hotel, referring to it as a “derelict flophouse”. At the time, I refrained from naming the hotel on social media, just posted a photo of me looking miserable in the room. Within 30 minutes, I’d received a barrage of furious tweets about my apparent snobbery.