Ben Aitken

Ben Aitken is an English freelance writer, playwright, and author renowned for engaging and often humorous travel books. His latest work, Here Comes The Fun: A Year of Making Merry (2023), follows his escapades during a year of seizing fun by the reins.

Ben Aitken was born under Thatcher and grew up in a terrace house in Portsmouth. He debuted with Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island (2015), which received acclaim from The Guardian, The Times, and BBC Radio, praised as a poignant state-of-the-nation commentary and a homage to Bryson.

His adventurous spirit led him to Poland in 2016, where he worked in a fish-and-chip shop. This experience inspired his next book, A Chip Shop in Poznan: My Unlikely Year in Poland (2019), a memorable account of his time abroad. Following this, Aitken continued to charm readers with The Gran Tour: Travels With My Elders (2021) and The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple (2022), both celebrated for their moving and hilarious narratives of eccentric British pensioners.

Here Comes the Fun chronicles Aitken's year-long quest for more fun. From joining a lawn bowls club and taking Bollywood dance lessons to braving cold-water swimming and trying out tantric sex, Aitken experiments with a wide array of activities.

His adventures include nostalgic endeavors, volunteering, edible gardening, and even TikTok, leading to varied, often mixed, but always enlightening results. Through this journey, Aitken not only finds personal fulfillment but also poses a reflective question: if fun is so beneficial, why do we often neglect it in our lives?

Photo credit: X @benaitken85