- Ben Schott
Ben Schott is a British writer and author of the "
Schott's Miscellanies " and "Schott's Almanac " series.Ben Schott was born in North
London ,England onMay 26 ,1974 , the son of a neurologist and a nurse. He has one brother, also now a neurologist. He went to school atUniversity College School ,Hampstead – both the junior school in Holly Hill and the senior school inFrognal .University
Schott went to
Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge , where he read Social and Political Sciences. At Cambridge he was a regular photographer for the university student newspaperVarsity (Cambridge) . He played collegehockey ,cricket , andcroquet – though not to a very high standard. He was also a member of a number of dining societies, as well as being secretary of theShakespeare Society – one of the oldest undergraduate societies in Cambridge. He took a double First in 1996]Schott's Miscellanies
As
The Guardian wrote of Schott’s Original Miscellany, the first of Schott's three Miscellanies titles, “the idea for the book came from home-madeChristmas cards that Schott sent to friends. They were no ordinary cards, but consisted of little booklets containing all of the essential information he supposed that one needed to get through life, but could never find”] .Schott followed up the success of the Original Miscellany with two sequels – "Schott’s Food & Drink Miscellany" and "Schott’s Sporting, Gaming, & Idling Miscellany". While both
bestseller s (Schott had two books simultaneously in the Sunday Times top ten) – sales did not match the runaway success of the first book. In part this was because of a vast swathe of copycat books designed to look and feel exactly like the Schott formula. One of the most shameless copies was Robson's Books' Companion books, which ripped off the Schott style with an entire series. The director of the company, Polly Powell, admitted toPublishers Weekly that “the writers of all the Companions are good writers, and Ben Schott is a fantastic writer"]Miscellany
Miscellaneous facts about Ben Schott:
* he plays the drums in a funk band;
* he has always wanted to be the host ofI'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue ] ;
* he drives an old 1967 Mercedes;
* There is another man named Ben Schott, infamous thief fromWegmans inPittsford, New York ;
* he is on the advisory board of the reference websiteCredo Reference ;
* he collectscufflinks ;
*GQ readers voted Schott one of their Men of the Year in 2003 – but he declined the award] .Footnotes
External links
* [http://www.benschott.com/ Ben Schott - Official website]
* [http://www.schott-media.com/main/main_frame.html Schott's photographic portfolio]
* [http://www.schottsalmanac.com/ Schott's Almanacs - Official website]
* [http://www.miscellanies.info/ Schott's Miscellanies - Official website]
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