A new independent bookshop and cafe opens in Margate this weekend.

The Margate Bookshop is moving into a new permanent home in the Old Town after first appearing as a pop-up stall in the Turner Contemporary in 2017.

Francesca Wilkins is behind the new venture which aims to provide a general interest to browsers as well as offering a chance to relax and enjoy a new book while having a drink in the cafe attached.

She says the inspiration behind the shop is to encourage more people to read and enjoy browsing a bookshop in the internet age when bookshops have become less personal.

A launch day is taking place at the shop in Market Place from 10am to 4pm on Sunday followed by an evening party at 6pm.

Francesca says: "The shop will serve as a 'general interest' bookshop with a selection encompassing all genres. Drawing on the town as a vibrant cultural hotspot, an appealing range of art-related titles from independent publishers will also be available.

"The shop will be a welcoming, calming space, that will ensure classics are ever-present, children's books affordable, small publications easier to stumble upon and personal recommendations will be close-at-hand and always come with a smile.

"With Thanet’s many links to the literary world past and present and Margate’s flourishing creative scene, the town is the natural location for a modern, but traditional in values, new bookshop."

She has been working on a business plan for a shop for the past four years working as a waitress and at London’s Word on the Water, a bookshop situated on a 100-year-old barge.

The cafe will serve tea and coffees and a selection of Viennoiserie pastries made by Margate bakers.

Francesca, who grew up in Switzerland and America and studied in Italy before settling in Margate, says she hopes the business will serve as a "literary hub" for Margate by hosting readings, book signings, book clubs, poetry slams and small gigs.

There are also ambitions to use space upstairs as a writers' room for authors and events.

It comes after the pop-up bookshop made its debut during the four-day Margate Bookie literature festival two years and followed up its success throughout 2018.

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