Anita and Me

Nine-year-old Meena can’t wait to grow up and break free from her parents. But, as the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the mining village of Tollington, her struggle for independence is different from most. Meena wants fishfingers and chips, not chapati and dhal; she wants an English Christmas, not the usual interminable Punjabi festivities – but more than anything, she wants to roam the backyards of working-class Tollington with feisty Anita Rutter and her gang. Blonde, cool, aloof, outrageous and sassy, Anita is everything Meena thinks she wants to be. Meena wheedles her way into Anita’s life, but the arrival of a baby brother, teenage hormones, impending entrance exams for the posh grammar school and a motorcycling rebel without a future threaten to turn Anita’s salad days sour. Anita and Me paints a comic, poignant, compassionate and colourful portrait of village life in the era of flares, power cuts, glam rock, decimalisation and Ted Heath. It is a unique vision of a British childhood in the Seventies, a childhood caught between two cultures, each on the brink of change. This literary fiction, Anita and Me, is a top pick for those seeking a deep dive into the complexities of cultural identity and adolescence. Meera Syal's best work, it beautifully captures the essence of a British-Punjabi childhood in the 70s. For fans of Alan Bennett (The Laying On Of Hands), William Golding (Rites of Passage), Kazuo Ishiguro (Klara and the Sun), D.G. Patel (Pride and Prejudice), and Rocket Classic Collection (The BompaCrazy Illustrated Jane Austen Collection [140+ Illustrations]).