There's a certain joy many of us get from being around books. With so much of our lives now online, the experience of picking up a physical book and entering into someone else's world is immensely satisfying.

So when Francesca Wilkins told me she'd found a home for The Margate Bookshop - a bookshop that had existed in online and pop-up form until now - I couldn't have been more excited.

In the heart of Margate's Old Town, the new Margate Bookshop opened last month and it is a beautiful space full of books that delight customers from Thanet and further afield. 

Francesca wanted a partner to take on the space upstairs to offer a place for the reading and writing community linked to the bookshop. There's a lovely well-lit room that we think will be great for informal meetings, workshops and, of course, writing. This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to start. As well as a home for Co-relate, our Margate Bookie volunteers and the writers and creatives we work with, I thought it would be great to open it out more widely.

And so, the idea for the Margate Bookshop Writers' Room was born.

A living room and workspace for readers, writers and creatives, the Writers' Room will be open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 6pm. It will also be available to hire for workshops and small-scale events. We're hoping it will be an unofficial HQ for the writing community, including writers visiting Margate.

With our resident writer, Chris MacDonald, already testing out the space, the Writers' Room will officially open on Friday 2 August as part of Margate's First Fridays, pioneered by our friends at Marine Studios. 

Where: Upstairs at The Margate Bookshop, 2 Market Place Margate CT9 1ER

Find out more about the Writers' Room.

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