My Only Boy With Rosa Rankin-Gee

28th May 2026

Fort Road Hotel Bar

Dreamland author Rosa Rankin-Gee discusses her new novel My Only Boy, a searing love story and a cinematic state-of-the-nation thriller at Fort Road Hotel Bar in Margate

7pm - 9pm

Life is spiralling out of control for My Only Boy's protagonist Elle, whose job, ironically, is in disaster management. On a meltingly hot night, after a shock election sees an extreme-right coalition storm to power, Elle meets Ed, and they both feel a magnetic jolt of attraction. She has only ever been with women, and he is gay, a novelist on the verge of releasing his first book. As the heat rises and the country's political rifts widen, how will the two choose between the people they’ve known themselves to be - and the people they are willing to become? Rosa Rankin-Gee's hotly-anticipated first novel since her Margate-based masterpiece Dreamland, My Only Boy asks urgent questions about desire, identity, complicity and what happens to our sense of self when everything else falls apart.

Splitting her time between Thanet and New York, author Rosa Rankin-Gee published her debut novel, The Last Kings of Sark, in 2013. Her next book, Dreamland, is The Margate Bookshop's bestselling title of all time, and has inspired a forthcoming BBC television series called The Dream Lands. Rosa will be discussing My Only Boy in conversation with Margate-based writer and performer Taíno Mendez, acclaimed author of the sparkling Rainbow Milk.

The wonderful Fort Road Hotel host the meet-ups in their basement bar with a delicious selection of drinks and snacks.

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