Anuja Chauhan’s top five books

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
“My favourite books about girls, including Little Women, Anne Of Green Gables and Pride And Prejudice.”

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My Family And Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
“This book is very close to my heart right now because I'm living in a little house on the halli  – 'halli' is Kannada for 'village' and our house and garden is full of birds, girgits [chameleons], frogs, snakes, butterflies, and of course two dogs and two cats.”

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Anuja Chauhan returns with a sequel to her popular Those Pricey Thakur Girls after two years, with The House That BJ Built (Westland). The five Thakur sisters’ lives are peppered with crazy aunts and lots of emotional blackmail, as their family attempts to sell their ancestral home on Hailey Road. “Most of the Thakurs are still there – older but not wiser. And there's Bonu Singh – all grown up and filling out a C cup nicely. She’s the main Thakur girl in this book, and she's not too fond of her aunts,” says Chauhan.

Penning a sequel wasn't easy, Chauhan adds. “It is tough writing a sequel, mostly because you have to give closure to so many characters. And also because you’re constantly wondering if new readers will feel left out if you don't explain things properly, or old readers will get bored because you’re explaining too much.” Ultimately, she hopes it a series we find ourselves returning to. So we couldn't help but ask Chauhan about her all-time favourite reads.  

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
“For the period and the sly humour and the sweet romantics bits.”

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The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger
“Because I love listening to Holden Caulfield's take on the ways of rich successful grown-ups and the world in general.”

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Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
“For the black humour and the amazingly etched out, fully deranged characters.” 

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