Cape Town Book Fair offers many lessons

There were 244 exhibitors, 65 percent from South Africa and seven percent from the rest of the continent, the remainder from overseas. As the gates closed on Tuesday, the official count of visitors, according to the Cape Town Book Fair web site, stood at 49,059, a figure which does not include children under 16, making attendance almost double what the first Cape Town Book Fair recorded last year.

 
Other events included during the four-day fair were a special children's area where authors, including Gina Hope, famous South African storyteller, kept children entertained. Exclusive Books launched their list of the 101 Books to Read Before You Die, with our very own Mma Ramotswe placing in at a not so shoddy number 54 with The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency penned by Alexander McCall Smith.