Saltburn director Emerald Fennell criticized as a ‘snob’ for laughing at joke about working class people, reports Emily Prescott

As the director of Saltburn, Emerald Fennell satirised the excesses of the ultra-wealthy. 

But last week she was left red-faced after being heckled and called a ‘snob’ for laughing at a joke about working-class people. 

Oxford-educated Emerald was challenged as she interviewed comedian Jonny Sweet about his new novel, The Kellerby Code. 

When she chuckled at the writer’s anecdote about once being mistaken for a waiter at a posh dinner party, one woman in the audience at Waterstones in Central London took offence, complaining: ‘That’s not funny. Why is it funny to be a waiter? What f****** snobs.’ 

Oxford-educated Emerald Fennell was challenged as she interviewed comedian Jonny Sweet about his new novel, The Kellerby Code

Emerald, 38, is the Marlborough-educated daughter of celebrity jeweller Theo Fennell

She then ripped several pages from the book and stormed out of the event. 

Emerald, 38, is the Marlborough-educated daughter of celebrity jeweller Theo Fennell, while Jonny – who also wrote the new Olivia Colman film Wicked Little Letters – was privately educated at Nottingham High School before going to Cambridge. 

After the incident, Emerald told me: ‘I’ve got used to it now, but I’m upset that it happened during Jonny’s moment.