Anita and Me
The debut novel from the award-winning screenwriter of 'Bhaji on the Beach'. The story of nine-year-old Meena, growing up in the only Punjabi family in the Black Country mining village of Tollington.
Blonde, sassy and rebellious, Anita Rutter is everything nine-year-old Meena wants to be. Growing up in the only Punjabi family in the village, Meena is desperate to break free from her parents. She wants fishfingers and chips, not chapati and dhal; she wants an English Christmas, not her family’s endless Diwali celebrations. And more than anything, she wants Anita to accept her into her gang.
But is a friendship with Anita Rutter really everything it seems?
A vivid portrait of a British childhood in the 1970s, Anita and Me is a novel rich with humour and compassion – a poignant story of immigration, adolescence and belonging.
Meera Syal is a multi-award winning actor and writer; her screenplays include the films Bhaji On The Beach and My Sister-Wife, and the screen adaptations of both her novels Anita And Me and Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee. Her TV work as a performer/writer includes the iconic comedy shows The Real McCoy, Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars At Number 42. She wrote the book of the ground-breaking musical Bombay Dreams (London’s Apollo Theatre/The Broadway Theatre, New York).