Meera Syal on How Books Have Helped Her Understand Herself

Podcast: Bookshelfie: Women’s Prize Podcast · Women’s Prize Podcast/ Bird Lime Media

Opublikowano: 2026-10-27

In this deeply personal conversation, comedian and writer Meera Syal discusses how seeing herself in books helped her make sense of her own experience, the weight of intergenerational trauma and how humour saved her life. Meera is one Britain’s best-loved comedy legends. She grew up in the small mining village of Essington in Staffordshire, where her Indian Punjabi parents settled after moving from New Delhi. Her early life there, as the only Asian family, later served as inspiration for her semi-autobiographical novel, Anita and Me, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 1997. Meera gai...