To mark the 5th anniversary of the Cape Town Book Fair more than 240 events took place during
these amazing 4 days. The 1st day of the fair - 30 July 2010 - was solely dedicated to
publishers, institutional buyers and rights agents. On that day, CTBF organised matchmaking
sessions to facilitate new business partnerships and hosted seminars that addressed the latest trends in the industry.
Meanwhile, just like every year, readers remained in the focus, with a broad array of public
seminars, author events and readings. High-profile writers and social commentators including
Wole Soyinka, Dr Mamphele Ramphele, cartoonist Zapiro, international bestselling writer Jodi
Picoult; renowned German writer Ingo Schulze; South African crime writing Deon Meyer;
Lawrence Anthony, the author of
The Elephant Whisperer; and Chris van Wyk, who
discussed his memoir
Eggs to Lay, Chickens to Hatch amongst others enthralled book
lovers at the Cape Town Book Fair.
Visitors to the Cape Town Book Fair were queuing up long before lunch time on Saturday,
Sunday and Monday morning, tempted by the smells coming from the Pick n Pay chef's theatre,
where Evita Bezuidenhout, Tina Bester, Reuben Riffel, Emma Chen and others gave
demonstrations. "There are no mistakes in cooking," Evita said. "If you make a mistake, it's
a new recipe," she said.
Above that the CTBF offered all members of its Facebook group to contribute to a run-on
story, "Where the story begins", and a staggering 92 people contributed to the tale featuring
vampires, Oreo biscuits and an exhausted community service doctor. The story was read out at the CTBF on Sunday evening.