The Gran Tour: Travels with my Elders

(Paperback)

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Description

When Ben Aitken learnt that his gran had enjoyed a four-night holiday including four three-course dinners, four cooked breakfasts, four games of bingo, a pair of excursions, sixteen pints of lager and luxury return coach travel, all for a hundred pounds, he thought, that's the life, and signed himself up. Six times over.

Good value aside, what Ben was really after was the company of his elders - those with more chapters under their belt, with the wisdom granted by experience, the candour gifted by time, and the hard-earned ability to live each day like it's nearly their last.

A series of coach holidays ensued - from Scarborough to St Ives, Killarney to Lake Como - during which Ben attempts to shake off his thirty-something blues by getting old as soon as possible.

Reviews

As funny and moving account of inter-generational friendship as you could wish to read. -- Mark Mason, Daily Mail
Both moving and hilarious -- Spectator * Books of the Year *
A tale of gloriously eccentric British pensioners [and] a light-hearted travelogue ... [but] so much more than that as well. The pen portraits of his fellow holidaymakers are wonderful. And boy, can he write. -- Daily Mail * Book of the Week *
Funny and moving ... the type of gentle travel writing that will leave you aching to visit a local seaside resort. -- Stylist
One of the ... most enjoyable travel books I've ever read ... Aitken has an astonishingly sharp eye and ear for the wisdom and weirdness of his elderly companions. * Daily Express *

Author Bio

Ben Aitken was born under Thatcher, grew to six foot then stopped, and is an Aquarius. He is the author of Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island (2015) and A Chip Shop in Poznan: My Unlikely Year in Poland (2019), 'one of the funniest books of the year' (Paul Ross, talkRadio).