After Dinner Speakers: Meera Syal, Shakira Caine, Robert Lacey

Writer and actress Meera Syal was born in 1963 near Wolverhampton in the West Midlands and was educated at Manchester University where she read English and Drama. She co-wrote the script for 'My Sister Wife', a three-part BBC Television series, and wrote the film Bhaji on the Beach for Channel 4. She co-writes and is a cast member of the popular BBC Television comedy series 'Goodness Gracious Me'. She also works as a journalist and is a regular contributor to The Guardian. Meera Syal's childhood experiences growing up in a small mining community provided the background to her first novel, Anita and Me (1996). The novel was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and won a Betty Trask Award. It tells the story of Meena Kumar, a young Asian girl struggling to accommodate the opposing influences of her white schoolfriends and her traditional Punjabi background. Syal's second novel, Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee (1999), narrates the adventures of three young Asian women growing up in Britain. Meera Syal was awarded an MBE in 1997 and won the 'Media Personality of the Year' award at the Commission for Racial Equality's annual 'Race in the Media' awards (2000).