The Right Sort of Girl: The Sunday Times Bestseller

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And if you enjoy reading her as much as I have enjoyed bringing her to life, we are going to have a good time. What the story highlighted very well is that in Indian culture there are a lot of family secrets that are never spoken about or acknowledged. Never mind how unrealistic it felt that a total stranger should devote his time to her journey, I was disappointed by the knight in shining armour trope. It's the women who hold the story, who educate, who persevere, who love, who are traumatised, who make the biggest sacrifices.

I could see so much of my own life in this book and at times it felt like parts of my life had been included in the story. How did she manage to become the powerhouse she is, whilst battling against being too white inside her home, too brown outside of it?

This is no shiny, sparkly story: as she says in the quote at the top, Rani has not been rescued by anyone but has got where she is with grit and determination. Oh, and if her mother and the aunties don't stop asking her when she's going to settle down and start having babies, Baby might just lose it.

What she doesn’t bargain for is Sid, her guide being annoyingly handsome with a knack for asking Baby the sort of questions that force her to look at what she really wants out of life. Now a presenter and broadcaster for BBC’s Countryfile, The One Show and BBC Radio Four’s Women’s Hour, Rani’s first foot in the industry was Top of The Pops.

She finds some old love letters to her grandfather from his first wife, who Baby had never heard about, and discovers that her grandfather had had a family before he’d left India. Make sure you subscribe to Bookshelfie wherever you listen to your podcasts so you don’t miss a second of what promises to be a banging season of Bookshelfie. It's clear Naseeb was once married to Baby's dad's dad (both men are now dead), and she definitely isn't Baby's grandmother (her dadima), who's downstairs making delicious food for Baby's party. Baby is in her mid-thirties, stuck in a fairly mundane PR job in Manchester, in a situationship with a colleague, despite her mother’s attempts to encourage her to settle down.

I think it's a generational issue where the older generation prefer not to talk about certain things or family issues that happened in the past but the newer generation are more inquisitive and want to learn more. Overall, a love story to India and its women, whether in India, Pakistan or Bradford, with some beautifully descriptive writing and an enjoyable plot, if rooted in man's inexplicable cruelty to women and Mother India.

Whilst at her mum’s house she starts to look for her dad’s kambal (blanket) to seek comfort and in her mum’s peti (trunk) she finds love letters written by her Dadaji (grandfather) to someone who is not her Dadima (grandmother). In looking for her family's secrets, she learns about Partition, the atrocities that took place and how families including her own, were torn apart.

Bradford born and bred; award-winning presenter Anita Rani is one of the most recognisable faces on British TV. Through Anita’s book choices we celebrate works by Anita Anand, Mona Arshi, Salena Godden, Caitlin Moran and Nikki May. This all makes it sound quite heavy but it’s a much lighter book than it might seem – and of course, there’s the blossoming romance with Sid. We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. I found myself highlighting so many words and looking them up, finding photos etc that the flow of the story was interrupted - not a problem for someone who is Indian or of Indian heritage, or who knows more than I did.I know almost nothing about Partition and am definitely inspired to find out more having read this book. She is a lead presenter on Countryfile, hosts Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 every week and regularly presents on Radio 2. What she doesn't bargain for is Sid, her guide (and unwilling driver) who is annoyingly handsome with a knack for asking Baby the sort of questions that force her to look at what she really wants out of life, and what starts as a journey about discovering her ancestry becomes a journey of self-discovery. This generation of women, the first who landed in Britain, had to straddle so many worlds and leave their own behind. I must confess I chose to read Baby Does A Runner on the basis that it was written by Anita Rani and from the title I think I expected some light and fluffy read - and whilst there is both romance and humour this is a book that delves so much deeper as it explores some complex issues around family, race and identity.