Authors hit the high street to celebrate independent booksellers

Kate Atkinson, Margaret Drabble and Jeremy Paxman just some of the writers appearing in bookshops across the UK during Independent Booksellers Week

Kate Atkinson is one of many authors set to celebrate the "vital, knowledgeable" nature of independent booksellers, "the people who know the most about books", as writers and readers up and down the country prepare to mark the eighth annual Independent Booksellers Week (IBW).

Authors including Margaret Drabble and Jeremy Paxman will be taking part in hundreds of events in independent bookshops across the UK from Saturday, with Drabble to speak at Brendon Books in Somerset, and Paxman at an event hosted by City Books in Brighton. From the bestselling thriller author Peter James to Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler, authors are lining up to honour the country's independent booksellers, whose numbers fell below 1,000 for the first time last year.

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