Anne Robinson's mother was a cross between Robert Maxwell and Mother Teresa. When Anne became a young reporter in Fleet Street, her mother, a wealthy market trader, bought her a mink coat and told her to have a facial once a month.

But Anne Robinson's early success almost ended in her destruction. A doomed marriage was followed by a secret custody battle for her two-year-old daughter, Emma. 'Is it true?' her husband's barrister demanded in court, 'you once said you'd rather cover the Vietnam War than vacuum the sitting room?'

A shocking, funny, poignant and honest account of three generations of women: Anne's formidable mother, Anne and her daughter Emma. Memoirs of an Unfit Mother tells of Anne's downfall, the shame of the years after the custody battle and her subsequent alcoholism. And the triumph of returning to take a second go at life. And making it work.