''Anita and Me'' is

Meera Syal Meera Syal FRSL (born Feroza Syal; 27 June 1961) is a English comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, ...

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, and was first published in 1996. It is a semi-

autobiographical novel An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. ...

, based on Syal's childhood in the mining village of

Essington Essington is a village and civil parish in South Staffordshire, England, located near the city of Wolverhampton and towns of Walsall, Bloxwich, Cannock and Brewood. The villages of Cheslyn Hay, Great Wyrley, Coven, Penkridge and Featherston ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, which won the

Betty Trask Award The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35, who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. Each year the awards total £20,000, with one author receiving a larger prize amount, called the ...

. The story revolves around Meena, a British Punjabi girl (the "me" of the title), and her relationship with her best friend, English neighbour Anita, as they grow up in the fictional

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

village of Tollington in the late 1960s. The novel is used as a

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

set text for an

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

examination provided by examination boards AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC. It is also used by other lower years in British schools.

Film

The novel was made into a film of the same name in 2002, in which Syal appears as Meena's Auntie Shaila. Syal also wrote the

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...

for the film. The film starred Chandeep Uppal and

Anna Brewster Anna Brewster is an English actress and model. Early life Anna Brewster is from Moseley, Birmingham. She attended St Bernard's RC School, Kings Heath Junior School and Queensbridge School in Moseley before studying for her A levels at Solih ...

in the title roles. The story follows young Meena Kumar, an everyday girl, and the life she lives with her parents in Tollington, near Wolverhampton. One seemingly ordinary day, her life is turned upside down by Anita Rutter. Meena is a bright girl, with a wise head on young shoulders, but one who retains a childlike exuberance and naivety. An aspiring writer, Meena pines for some of the breaks that she believes white children have; upon being asked "what do you want to be when you grow up", Meena replies "blonde".

Stage adaptation

The novel was adapted for the stage by

Tanika Gupta Tanika Gupta (born 1 December 1963) is a British playwright. Apart from her work for the theatre, she has also written scripts for television, film and radio plays. Early life Tanika Gupta was born in London to immigrant parents from Kolkata, ...

for the

Birmingham Repertory Theatre Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre c ...

, where it premiered on 9 October and ran until 24 October 2015. It was followed by a transfer to the

Theatre Royal, Stratford East The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a 460 seat Victorian producing theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company, famously associated with director Joan Littlewood, whose s ...

from 29 October to 21 November 2015.

Ayesha Dharker Ayesha Dharker (born 16 March 1978) is a British actress, known for her appearance as Queen Jamillia, the Queen of Naboo, in '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones,'' and for her stage performances. Her other film roles include ...

reprised her role from the film for the stage version. In 2017, a theatrical production toured the UK.it always deals with the political system of the society

Sources

*Rocío G. Davis, "India in Britain: Myths of Childhood in Meera Syal's Anita and Me", in Fernando Galván & Mercedes Bengoechea (ed.), ''On Writing (and) Race in Contemporary Britain'', Universidad de Alcalá 1999, 139-46. *Graeme Dunphy, "Meena's Mockingbird: From

Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926February 19, 2016) was an American novelist best known for her 1960 novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird''. It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Lee has received numero ...

to Meera Syal", in ''Neophilologus'' 88, 2004, 637-59.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0303661, title=Anita and Me 1996 British novels British novels adapted into films British novels adapted into plays Novels set in the West Midlands (county) Novels set in the 1970s 1996 debut novels Flamingo books