Ben Aitken was born under Thatcher, grew to 6ft then stopped, and is an Aquarius. He is the author of Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island (Not Bad Books, 2015), which was featured in The Guardian, The Times and on BBC Radio, and was described by the Manchester Review as a ‘poignant comment on the state of the nation’ and a ‘highly accomplished homage’. In 2016, Aitken moved to Poland to work in a fish-and-chip shop. His second book, A Chip Shop in Poznan: My Unlikely Year in Poland (Icon, 2019), is the fruit of that peculiar migration. The Gran Tour: Travels With My Elders (Icon, 2021) and The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple (Icon, 2022) soon followed, and have been described as ‘moving and hilarious’ portraits of ‘eccentric British pensioners.’ Ben’s latest book, Here Comes the Fun: A Year of Making Merry, was published by Icon in 2023, and follows his escapades during a year of seizing fun by the reins.
