Anita and me, paperback/meera syal

Debut novel from Meera Syal, who wrote the screenplays to }Bhaji on the Beach{ and }My Sister Wife{.

This is the story of nine-year- old Meena, an Indian girl growing up in the sixties, daughter of the only Punjabi family in the Midlands mining village of Tollington.

}Anita and Me{ is full of pleasure.

The book is expertly structured and engagingly written, illuminated throughout by Meenas ironical reverence and robustness of spirit.

I can give it no higher recommendation Laura Tennant, }Guardian{.