Vigilauntie by Meera Syal

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.