Here Comes the Fun

A Journey Into the Serious Business of Having a Laugh

Ben Aitken

$26.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Icon Books
01 October 2024

Cookery, food & drink; Hobbies; Water sports & recreations; Theme parks & funfairs

Are you getting enough? Bestselling travel writer Ben Aitken wasn't. Increasingly flat and decreasingly zen, he knew that something had to change.

Unnerved into action, Ben gave burnout the boot and stress the cold-shoulder by embarking on a whimsical journey into the serious business of having a laugh. He did a pilgrimage in Spain and a cruise of the Baltic. He endured a summer camp in Kent and a theme park in Derby. He injured his nose in Brighton (wakeboarding) and pulled his hamstring in London (ecstatic dancing). And when he wasn't on the road, he searched for merriment at home: by giving bridge a go, the crossword a chance, and gardening a crack of the whip.

By incorporating the thoughts and findings of key thinkers and boffins, and by reflecting on less obvious sources of levity like conversation and community, Here Comes the Fun offers a satisfying balance of the playful and profound, the serious and silly, the thoughtful and fun.

AUTHOR: Ben Aitken was born under Thatcher, grew to 6ft then stopped, and is an Aquarius. He followed Bill Bryson around the UK for Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island (2015) then moved to Poland to understand why everyone was leaving. A Chip Shop in Poznan: My Unlikely Year in Poland (2019) is the fruit of that unusual migration. For The Gran Tour: Travels with my Elders (2020), the author went on six package coach holidays - Scarborough, Llandudno, Lake Como et al - with people twice or thrice his age in order to see what they had to say for themselves and to narrow the generation gap a notch. The Marmalade Diaries (2022) is the story of an unlikely friendship during an unlikely time, and stems from the author's decision to move in with an 85 year old widow ten days before a national lockdown.

By: Ben Aitken
Imprint: Icon Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9781837730063
ISBN 10: 1837730067
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 October 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified

Ben Aitken was born under Thatcher, grew to 6ft then stopped, and is an Aquarius. He was conceived by a nurse and a shipwright, grew up in Portsmouth and was in a boyband for a spell in the noughties, then worked as a carer throughout his twenties. He is the author of six books: Dear Bill Bryson, A Chip Shop in Poznan (a Times bestseller), The Gran Tour ('Both moving and hilarious', Spectator), The Marmalade Diaries, Here Comes the Fun and Shitty Breaks. He writes for The Guardian and The Times, was the TCG Travel Journalist of the Year in 2024, and is an occasional lecturer at the University of Portsmouth.

Reviews for Here Comes the Fun: A Journey Into the Serious Business of Having a Laugh

What Aitken writes about fun is worth reading ... **** - four stars! * Mail on Sunday * Irresistible. A buzzing mixture of experiment, farce and revelation as Ben Aitken road-tests the outer limits of fun till they squeak. -- Christopher Somerville, Walking Correspondent of The Times A great book -- Simon Rimmer, Sunday Brunch Aitken's writing is always a delight -- Madeleine Bunting, author of The Seaside Boy, can he write * Daily Mail * Ben Aitken finds the funny in everything but he does so without ever losing his warmth or his curiosity. He didn't just make me laugh - he made me want to be a better person. Life affirming and - yes - fun! -- Max Dickins, author of Billy No-Mates