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, the son of a neurologist and a nurse, he has one brother now a neurologist. He went to school at Hampstead. Schott went to Gonville & Caius College, where he read Social and Political Sciences, he took a double first in 1996. After Cambridge, Schott got a job at the London advertising agency J. Walter Thompson where he was as an account manager on the Nestlé Rowntree account working on Smarties, Kit Kat, Polo. After only four months he resigned to become a freelance photographer. Schott worked as a photographer from 1996–2003, 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, the Institute of Directors. A profile in The Times said "his subjects included John Prescott, rude, Sir Roy Strong, who had "the most wonderful, doleful eyes" and told him: “You must realise I’m awfully photogenic.”

Tony Blair asked Schott. His photographic portfolio is online; 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. Schott typeset the book himself and had 50 copies printed by the Pear Tree Press in Stevenage. After sending copies out to his friends, he sent one to the CEO of Nigel Newton. Newton told the Boston Globe, "I was bowled over when it arrived on my desk, it was a work of striking originality, it was remarkable to receive an unsolicited submission like this in the mail. I passed it to one of our editors, who signed it up."Schott's Original Miscellany was published with little fanfare, but after an article in the Guardian, in which the book was described as the book as the "publishing sensation of the year", sales increased, 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 oddest, merriest, title you will come across in a long day's march through the shimmering desert of contemporary publishing". 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, 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 and Germany until 2010. The Almanacs shared the same look and feel as the Miscellanies – but were longer and larger; each edition was different, although some content was adapted. The British edition had sections on The World; the Sunday Times called Schott's Almanac "a social barometer of genuine historical value". 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 and the King of Clubs, was published by Little and Company. It was written as a homage with the blessing of the Wodehouse Estate. For two years after the publication of the first Miscellany, Schott wrote a weekly miscellany column for The Daily Telegraph, 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, he writes regular features for The Times. Schott publishes a bespoke Miscellany Diary with the society printers Smythson of Bond Street, a desk-pad diary with Workman, his books are noted for specifying the precise design tools. He has acknowledged the influence of the work of Edward Tufte in influencing the look and feel of his books. In 2004, he won a D&AD award for the design of Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany.

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Open Academy is a secondary school with academy status located in the Heartsease area of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. The academy was first formed in September 2008. Housed in the buildings of the former school, Open Academy moved to new buildings in September 2010, it is a Christian school, sponsored by the Bishop of Norwich and businessman Graham Dacre. The school offers BTECs and vocational courses as programmes of study for its pupils; the school has a specialism in environmental science and offers courses geared towards the specialism. Open Academy was a part of the Kett Sixth Form College consortium, which includes Sprowston Community High School and Sewell Park College; the Kett operates as a separate entity to its host schools. As of 2013, the Academy gained a separate Sixth Form, to be known as OA6. OA6 is a small, but growing Sixth Form, offering a variety of BTECs. Stuart Ashen and YouTube personality/reviewer Open Academy official website The Kett Sixth Form College official website