The friendly book fest by the sea has upped the number of events in its already impressive program for book lovers

The shift to online events brings an international audience to the friendly litfest by the sea. The first event got 2,200 viewers from as far afield as US, Denmark, Spain and even Lithuania.

Andreas Loizou, founder of the Margate Bookie, says: ‘Margate is now firmly on the literary map. We get calls from authors, agents and publicists around the world. Appearing at Turner Contemporary is a massive draw for them. Obviously, that can’t happen at the moment but we’re in a strong position thanks to the Bookie’s reputation. We have an amazing line-up for the rest of 2020. The Bookie team is full of absolute geniuses and we’ve come up with a very imaginative programme of 12 events until December.’

Top names appearing include William Shaw, Samantha Ellis, Dean Atta, Jess Kidd and Richard Skinner. The local writing scene provides us with Daisy Buchanan, Dale Shaw, Sophia Tobin, and Ros Anderson .

Head of programming, Francesca Baker, says : ‘The Bookie Bonanza began with storytelling for the children of key workers who are in lockdown over the summer and will end with a literary salon. In-between you’ll find author evenings, a 90 page fanzine and the world’s lowest-budget film festival. There’s a poetry slam, fantastic creativity courses and a wellness weekend. Top of my list, though, is a virtual walking tour of literary Margate in September that’s going to blow your mind.”

This year Margate Bookie is 100% online, and features a busy programme of writing workshops, author talks, discussion panels and more – you can see events here https://margatebookie.com/book-events.