A wild roller-coaster ride through the ups and downs of motherhood and mental illness.

At 26, Nikki found herself knocking on her best friend’s door with a suitcase, a jar of coins and two little boys - all she had in the world. Madness, Mayhem and Motherhood is her funny, sad and brutally candid account of her life through poverty, homelessness, child-rearing, friendships, lust, love and loss.

Whether she was cleaning the houses of millionaires to put food on the table, falling hard for The Wiggles, drowning in cask wine, living in a tent or dealing with predatory landlords, Nikki refused to go under and tethered her survival to her love for her children, which pulled her through the darkest days.

In Madness, Mayhem and Motherhood, the struggles are raw but the laughs are loud and the love is palpable. Being a poor, mad mother has its challenges but Nikki McWatters humanises the face of poverty, while arm-wrestling her mental illness into submission and packing school lunches like a boss.

Madness, Mayhem and Motherhood is a powerful, touching and wildly entertaining story of maternal endurance.