Why I Had to Murder my Mother

A story of love, hate and power, and how a mother tried to control her daughter's life for over five decades.

Aged just eight, Katharine’s world falls apart when her mother discovers her father’s affair. As the matriarch gathers strength, in reaction to her husband’s betrayal, the family wilts beneath her. But Katharine loves her mother and continues to support her, impressed by her determination, style, wit and charisma.

From the breakdown of ‘normal’ family life in 1964, Katharine begins a super-strict, military-style upbringing at home and boarding school, followed by expulsion in the seventies and total rebellion in the eighties; a career in the music industry; and her on-going struggle with her sexuality. Meanwhile her parents battle on with their own deeply broken relationship through rapidly declining old-age health issues and, as a result, Katharine is thrown right back into the centre of it all.

It’s not until her father’s death that Katharine has a light-bulb moment and her resentment and rage at her mother causes her mental stability to get rocked to the core. Can she control herself or is she going to murder her mother?