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Ben Schott | |
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| Born | 26 May 1974 North London, England |
| Education | University College School, Hampstead |
| Alma mater | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
| Notable works | Schott's Miscellany, Schott's Almanac |
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Ben Schott (born 26 May 1974) is a British writer, photographer, and author of the Schott's Miscellanies and Schott's Almanac series.
Ben Schott was born in North London, England, the son of a neurologist and a nurse. He has one brother, also now a neurologist. He went to school at University College School, Hampstead.
Schott went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read Social and Political Sciences. He took a double first in 1996. [1]
After Cambridge, Schott got a job at the London advertising agency J. Walter Thompson where he was an account manager on the Nestlé Rowntree account working on Smarties, Kit Kat and Polo. After only four months he resigned to become a freelance photographer.
Schott worked as a photographer from 1996 to 2003, specialising in portraits of politicians and celebrities. He was commissioned by a range of editorial and commercial clients, including The Independent , The Sunday Times , Sunday Business , Reader's Digest , and the Institute of Directors. A profile in The Times said "his subjects included John Prescott, who was rude, and Sir Roy Strong, who had "the most wonderful, doleful eyes" and told him: "You must realise I'm awfully photogenic." Tony Blair asked Schott if he would like to see then-baby Leo; Cherie barked at him not to take too long as they were about to have lunch." [2] His photographic portfolio is online. [3]
The idea for the first book originated in some cards that Schott made to send to friends, which contained booklets of what he considered vital but hard to find information. [4] Schott typeset the book himself and had 50 copies privately printed by the Pear Tree Press in Stevenage. After sending copies out to his friends, he sent one to the CEO of Bloomsbury, Nigel Newton. Newton told The Boston Globe , "I was completely bowled over when it arrived on my desk. It was a work of striking originality, and it was remarkable to receive an unsolicited submission like this in the mail. I immediately passed it to one of our editors, who signed it up." [5]
Schott's Original Miscellany was published with little fanfare in 2002, but after an article in the Guardian, in which the book was described as the "publishing sensation of the year", sales increased, and within weeks Schott's Original Miscellany was at No. 1. Robert McCrum said of the book in The Observer : "Originality is like charisma. It's hard to define, but we know it when we find it ... Schott's Original Miscellany is, without doubt, the oldest, and possibly merriest title you will come across in a long day's march through the shimmering desert of contemporary publishing". [6]
Schott followed the Original Miscellany with three sequels: Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany, Schott's Sporting, Gaming, & Idling Miscellany and Schott's Quintessential Miscellany. While the first two were best-sellers (Schott had two books simultaneously in the Sunday Times top ten), sales did not match the success of the first book.
The first edition of Schott's Almanac was published in Britain in 2005, followed by yearly editions published in Britain, America, and Germany until 2010. The Almanacs shared the same look and feel as the Miscellanies – but were substantially longer and larger. Each edition was different, although some content was shared or adapted. The British edition had sections on The World; Society; Media & Celebrity; Music & Movies; Books & Arts; Science & Technology; Parliament & Politics; Form & Faith; The Establishment; Sport; and an Ephemerides section that contains traditional almanac information on dates, moon phases, and the season. The Sunday Times called Schott's Almanac "a social barometer of genuine historical value"; The Boston Globe called it "One of the oddest and most addictively readable reference books in print". Schott introduced the 2006 Almanac with a quote from Ben Hecht: "Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock".
In November 2018 his first novel, a pastiche Jeeves book titled Jeeves and the King of Clubs, was published by Little, Brown, and Company. It was written in homage to Jeeves creator P. G. Wodehouse, with the blessing of the Wodehouse Estate. [7] Schott wrote a sequel titled Jeeves and the Leap of Faith that was published in 2020. [8]
For two years after the publication of the first Miscellany, Schott wrote a weekly miscellany column for The Daily Telegraph , and also produced special miscellany features on Christmas and the Olympics. For over a year he wrote a regular travel miscellany column for the UK edition of Condé Nast Traveler magazine. In 2005 and 2006 the Guardian featured special editions of G2 featuring extracts from Schott's Almanac.
In 2008 Schott was appointed as a Contributing Columnist for The New York Times OpEd page. [9] He also writes regular features for The Times .
Schott publishes a bespoke Miscellany Diary with the society printers Smythson of Bond Street, and a desk-pad diary with Workman.
His books are noted for specifying the precise design tools (fonts, leading, etc.) that he employs. He has regularly acknowledged the influence of the work of Edward Tufte in influencing the look and feel of his books. [10]
In 2004, he won a D&AD award for the design of Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany. [11]
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Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
Jeeves is a fictional character in a series of comedic short stories and novels by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the highly competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Bertie Wooster. First appearing in print in 1915, Jeeves continued to feature in Wodehouse's work until his last completed novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, a span of 60 years.
Bertram Wilberforce Wooster is a fictional character in the comedic Jeeves stories created by British author P. G. Wodehouse. An amiable English gentleman and one of the "idle rich", Bertie appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose intelligence manages to save Bertie or one of his friends from numerous awkward situations. Bertie Wooster and Jeeves have been described as "one of the great comic double-acts of all time".
Guy Reginald Bolton was an Anglo-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the US, he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G. Wodehouse and Fred Thompson, with whom he wrote 21 and 14 shows respectively, and the American playwright George Middleton, with whom he wrote ten shows. Among his other collaborators in Britain were George Grossmith Jr., Ian Hay and Weston and Lee. In the US, he worked with George and Ira Gershwin, Kalmar and Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II.
Right Ho, Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, the second full-length novel featuring the popular characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, after Thank You, Jeeves. It was first published in the United Kingdom on 5 October 1934 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 15 October 1934 by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, under the title Brinkley Manor. It had also been sold to the Saturday Evening Post, in which it appeared in serial form from 23 December 1933 to 27 January 1934, and in England in the Grand Magazine from April to September 1934. Wodehouse had already started planning this sequel while working on Thank You, Jeeves.
In fiction, a canon is material accepted as being authentically produced by an author or an ascribed author.
Much Obliged, Jeeves is a comic novel by P. G. Wodehouse, published in the United Kingdom by Barrie & Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York under the name Jeeves and the Tie That Binds. Both editions were published on the same day, 15 October 1971, which was Wodehouse's 90th birthday.
"Jeeves in the Springtime" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in The Strand Magazine in December 1921 in London, and in Cosmopolitan in New York that same month. The story was also included in the 1923 collection The Inimitable Jeeves as two separate chapters, "Jeeves Exerts the Old Cerebellum" and "No Wedding Bells for Bingo".
"The Great Sermon Handicap" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in The Strand Magazine in London in June 1922, and then in Cosmopolitan in New York that same month. The story was also included in the collection The Inimitable Jeeves as two separate stories.
The Code of the Woosters is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. It was previously serialised in The Saturday Evening Post (US) from 16 July to 3 September 1938, illustrated by Wallace Morgan, and in the London Daily Mail from 14 September to 6 October 1938.
John Robert McCrum is an English writer and editor, holding senior editorial positions at Faber and Faber over seventeen years, followed by a long association with The Observer.
Thank You, Jeeves is a Jeeves comic novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 16 March 1934 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 23 April 1934 by Little, Brown and Company, New York.
Joy in the Morning is a novel by English humorist P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 22 August 1946 by Doubleday & Co., New York and in the United Kingdom on 2 June 1947 by Herbert Jenkins, London. Some later American paperback editions bore the title Jeeves in the Morning.
The Mating Season is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 9 September 1949 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on November 29, 1949, by Didier & Co., New York.
The following is a list of recurring or notable fictional locations featured in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse, in alphabetical order by place name.
Schott's Almanac was a best-selling UK reference book, published annually in the United Kingdom between 2006 and 2010. The book was compiled by Ben Schott and published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Richard Alexander Usborne was a journalist, advertising executive, schoolmaster and author. After the publication of his book Wodehouse at Work in 1961 he became regarded as the leading authority on the works of P. G. Wodehouse. He published or contributed to nine more books on the subject. He adapted eight Wodehouse novels and several other of the author's works for broadcast on BBC radio between 1979 and 1996.
Spring Fever is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published on 20 May 1948, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and on the same date in the United States by Doubleday and Co, New York. Although not featuring any of Wodehouse's regular characters, the cast contains a typical Wodehousian selection of English aristocrats, Stoker family relations, wealthy Americans, household staff and imposters.
"Jeeves and the Chump Cyril" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in the Saturday Evening Post in New York in June 1918, and in The Strand Magazine in London in August 1918. It was also included in the 1923 collection The Inimitable Jeeves as two separate chapters, "A Letter of Introduction" and "Startling Dressiness of a Lift Attendant".
Jeeves and the King of Clubs is a 2018 novel by Ben Schott, set in P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster universe.
