She cut her teeth at The Big Issue before moving to The Scotsman, where she became one of the newspaper’s leading columnists, book reviewers, interviewers and feature writers. Now a freelancer, Chitra writes regularly for The Guardian and other publications, and often chairs events at festivals and regularly reviews on radio. Expecting (Saraband) is her first book. Expecting won the First Book Award at the 2016 Saltire Literary Awards.