Novel Ideas: Celebrating the Margate Bookie
Writer Dale Shaw
Decades ago, Margate Library (and the Clash) sowed the seeds for Margate’s annual lit fest, which will see its tenth edition this autumn
Margate can boast literary connections including poetic heavyweights such as TS Eliot and John Keats, political pioneers like Karl Marx and authors of the calibre of William Makepeace Thackeray, Dennis Wheatley and Dreamland author Rosa RankinGee. With this kind of creative heritage, it makes perfect sense that one of the nation’s best-loved literary festivals has been established in the town. 2024 sees the 10th edition of the Margate Bookie, which has featured illustrious writers such as Adam Kay, Tessa Hadley, Louis de Bernières, Sathnam Sanghera, Daisy Buchanan, Yomi Adegoke and many more, as well as hosting writing workshops, historical walks, small press launches, poetry slams, events for kids, music, comedy and much more.
The festival was the brainchild of Margate native Andreas Loizou and, as Andreas told me, it was an ambition many years in the making. “My parents came here in 1965 and opened a restaurant in Cliftonville, which is now Daisy. I really loved Margate growing up. And I got really inspired by my reading. And also by music.” It was this love of music that sowed the seeds for the Margate Bookie. “I saw my first gig in 1980, which was the Clash at Canterbury, and I got a lot from that. The idea that you could do anything you wanted to do. Then there was this mad series of gigs at the Winter Gardens: Two Tone with Madness and the Specials. And seeing those gigs, I thought it was great to have that community of people together.”
The Bookie would still take quite a few years to reach fruition. But in the Writer Dale Shaw Decades ago, Margate Library (and the Clash) sowed the seeds for Margate’s annual lit fest, which will see its tenth edition this autumn.
Meantime, Andreas was completing his own literary education. “I had this job on the seafront making ice cream, and it was a really rainy summer. My boss used to let me go up to Margate Library and get books. And I read all of George Orwell. He basically changed everything I thought about language, about politics, about science.”
After a summer slinging ice cream and devouring Orwell, Andreas left Margate for Leeds and Cambridge universities before bagging a place on the esteemed Faber Academy fictionwriting course, followed by a life in writing and a career in finance. He intermittently returned to Margate and saw how the town was evolving. “I was really excited by all the changes. It was incredibly, incredibly positive. I thought the energy and the enthusiasm really changed it. When your hometown is regenerated and you come back and visit, it’s really magical.”
As Andreas spent more time in Margate, his idea for a book festival resurfaced and was finally realised. Though the first Bookie, back in 2015, was a humble affair. “Books are so vital for me, and I just really wanted to give some of that back to Margate. I was a member of Resort Studios, and they said, ‘Why don’t you use this room we have?’ And that’s how it started. It was just one event, but we got 105 people over the afternoon. I took them to the Lifeboat afterwards, and people said, ‘Why don’t you turn this into something?’”
The Margate Bookie sprang into life, building year on year with more events, writers, venues and devoted attendees. “In the second year, the Turner kindly gave us their venue. Then it started to grow. We had Louis de Bernières singing in the Lifeboat, we had events at Sands with David Quantick. We got Dreamland. You get that momentum, then suddenly it becomes a real thing. You get agents calling you, and you’re on their radar.”
And Andreas believes the Bookie and Margate’s emergence as a creative hub has had an undeniably positive effect on the town. “I love the fact that authors have moved here, and that eventually Margate and Thanet will be a place that exports literary talent to the rest of the UK, the rest of the world.” With a growing team of festival staff, dedicated volunteers and literary lovers helping out, the Bookie is growing, developing and evolving. But what are Andreas’s hopes for the future? “I want it to be much more focused on our volunteers. So many ideas, for writing sessions and for guests, have come from them. They’ve provided so much. And I can see us having some kind of writing centre with a performance space and some sort of cinema. I’d love something like that in Margate.”
This year’s Margate Bookie runs from 28 September to 6 October. Visit margatebookie.com for tickets and details