diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 55c0bafb..d1157f48 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 **unreleased**
 **v1.0.2-dev**
+- Added: expanded set of special character escapes and added documentation
 - Housekeeping: migrated from travis+appveyor to GitHub Actions for CI, thanks @clbarnes
 
 **v1.0.1**
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0e2fa552..f40437c1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -472,6 +472,47 @@ search = MY_VERSION="{current_version}"
 replace = MY_VERSION="{new_version}"
 ```
 
+### Configuration file -- Special characters
+
+Some characters have a special meaning in the config file and may need to be
+escaped if you want to use them as part of values. Examples are comment
+characters `#` and `;`, as well as whitespace characters. Leading whitespace
+characters are dropped, and comment characters at the beginning of a line make
+the whole line a comment.
+
+When you do need to express these characters at the beginning of a line, you can
+use the special variables `{#}`, `{;}`, `{space}` and `{tab}` respectively.
+
+For example, given the following `version.json`:
+```
+{
+  "name": "mypackage",
+  "version": "1.0.0",
+  "dependencies": [
+    {
+      "name": "mydependency",
+      "version": "1.0.0"
+    }
+  ]
+}
+```
+
+Suppose we want to match the version for "mypackage", but not the version of any
+dependency. This could be specified as follows:
+```ini
+[bumpversion]
+current_version = 1.0.0
+# leading spaces are dropped: use {space} instead for at least the first space
+# we want to match on each line
+search = "name": "mypackage",
+  {space}{space}"version": "{current_version}"
+replace = "name": "mypackage",
+  {space}{space}"version": "{new_version}"
+
+[bumpversion:file:version.json]
+```
+
+
 ## Command-line Options
 
 Most of the configuration values above can also be given as an option on the command-line.
diff --git a/bumpversion/cli.py b/bumpversion/cli.py
index d627d702..5935da75 100644
--- a/bumpversion/cli.py
+++ b/bumpversion/cli.py
@@ -57,7 +57,11 @@
 logger_list = logging.getLogger("bumpversion.list")
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 time_context = {"now": datetime.now(), "utcnow": datetime.utcnow()}
-special_char_context = {c: c for c in ("#", ";")}
+special_char_context = {
+    **{c: c for c in ("#", ";")},
+    "space": " ",
+    "tab": "\t",
+}
 
 
 OPTIONAL_ARGUMENTS_THAT_TAKE_VALUES = [
diff --git a/tests/test_cli.py b/tests/test_cli.py
index fbbd38d8..a7b9dafb 100644
--- a/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -2392,3 +2392,90 @@ def test_independent_falsy_value_in_config_does_not_bump_independently(tmpdir):
 
     main(['major'])
     assert '3.0.0-0' == tmpdir.join("VERSION").read()
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "char, var",
+    [
+        ("#", "#"),
+        (";", ";"),
+        (" ", "space"),
+        ("\t", "tab"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_special_char_escapes(tmpdir, char, var):
+    """
+    Verify behavior of escapes (through string format variables) for characters that have a special meaning in the .cfg file
+    syntax when used in a value.
+    """
+    tmpdir.join("VERSION").write(
+        dedent(
+            """
+            1.0.0
+            %s1.0.0
+            """.lstrip("\n") % char
+        )
+    )
+    tmpdir.join(".bumpversion.cfg").write(
+        dedent(
+            """
+            [bumpversion]
+            current_version: 1.0.0
+            search = {%s}{current_version}
+            replace = {%s}{new_version}
+
+            [bumpversion:file:VERSION]
+            """ % (var, var)
+        )
+    )
+    tmpdir.chdir()
+    main(["major"])
+    assert tmpdir.join("VERSION").read() == dedent(
+        # assert that first line did not match while second did
+        """
+        1.0.0
+        %s2.0.0
+        """.lstrip("\n") % char
+    )
+
+
+def test_special_characters_docs(tmpdir):
+    """
+    Verify that special characters snippets in the documentation works as advertized.
+    """
+    def json_for_version(version):
+        return dedent(
+            """
+            {
+              "name": "mypackage",
+              "version": "%s",
+              "dependencies": [
+                {
+                  "name": "mydependency",
+                  "version": "1.0.0"
+                }
+              ]
+            }
+            """.lstrip("\n") % version
+        )
+
+    tmpdir.join("version.json").write(json_for_version("1.0.0"))  # same version as mydependency
+    tmpdir.join(".bumpversion.cfg").write(
+        dedent(
+            """
+            [bumpversion]
+            current_version = 1.0.0
+            # leading spaces are dropped: use {space} instead for at least the first space
+            # we want to match on each line
+            search = "name": "mypackage",
+              {space}{space}"version": "{current_version}"
+            replace = "name": "mypackage",
+              {space}{space}"version": "{new_version}"
+
+            [bumpversion:file:version.json]
+            """
+        )
+    )
+    tmpdir.chdir()
+    main(["major"])
+    assert tmpdir.join("version.json").read() == json_for_version("2.0.0")