Anita and Me

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Anita and Me

By: Meera Syal

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About this listen

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.

Family Life

Genre Fiction

Literary Fiction

Literature & Fiction

Psychological

Satire

Small Town & Rural

Fiction

Comedy

Village

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Critic reviews

‘”Tom Sawyer” meets “Cider With Rosie” en route to India via Wolverhampton. A wonderful book – treat yourself.’ Ben Elton

‘Funny, moving and packed full of wonderful surprises.’ Esther Freud

‘This is a funny, sad book. It made me long to be a kid again, yet grateful I’d grown up.’ Jo Brand

‘”Anita and Me” is full of pleasure. Syal is as skilful at rendering the saucy, ballsy backchat of the Tollington women as she is at describing Meena’s “uncles and aunties”, her parents’ Indian friends. The book is expertly structured and engagingly written, illuminated throughout by Meena’s ironical irreverance and robustness of spirit. I can give it no higher recommendation.’ Laura Tennant, Guardian

Most relevant

Bought this book primarily because of the decade it was set in. Really didn't know what to expect. After a fairly slow start the story and characters developed and began to hold my attention. A pleasant, enjoyable little story. The narrator (author) had lots of different accents which is always a plus for an audio book and it was well read. I recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a refreshing change and a story that is a little different from the usual. Christine.