Like every nine-year-old girl, 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 fight for independence is far from typical.

Meena wants fish fingers and chips, not chapati and dhal; she wants an English Christmas, not interminable Punjabi festivities with her embarrasing aunties and dreadful cousins; but more than anything, more than mini-skirts, make-up, and the freedom to watch soap operas on television, Meena wants to roam the backyards of working-class Tollington with the feisty Anita Rutter and her gang.

With great warmth and humor, Meera Syal brings to life a quirky, spirited 1960s British mining town after the mine has closed. The men have become househusbands, the women work in the ball bearings factory, and Indians have moved in next door....