Nigella Lucy Lawson (born 6 January 1960) is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. Lawson was born to Nigel Lawson, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Vanessa Salmon, whose family owned the J. Lyons and Co. empire. After graduating from the University of Oxford, Lawson started to work as a book reviewer and restaurant critic, later becoming the deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times in 1986. She then embarked upon a career as a freelance journalist, writing for a number of newspapers and magazines. In 1998, Lawson brought out her first cookery book, How to Eat , which sold 300,000 copies and became a bestseller. She went on to write her second book in 2000, How to be a Domestic Goddess , winning her the British Book Award for Author of The Year.
Lawson's career underwent a significant change in 2000 when she began to host her own cookery series on Channel 4, Nigella Bites , which was accompanied with another bestselling cookery book. The Nigella Bites series proved to be successful, winning Lawson a Guild of Food Writers Award, however her 2005 ITV daytime chat show was met with a negative critical reaction and was cancelled after attracting low ratings. In the United States in 2006, Lawson hosted the Food Network's Nigella Feasts , followed by a three-part BBC Two series, Nigella's Christmas Kitchen , in the United Kingdom. This led to the commissioning of Nigella Express on BBC Two in 2007. Her own cookware range, Living Kitchen, has a value of £7 million, and she has sold more than three million cookery books worldwide.
Renowned for her flirtatious manner of presenting, Lawson has been called the "queen of food porn". She is neither a trained chef nor cook, and has assumed a distinctly relaxed approach to her cooking. Lawson has demonstrated influence as a food commentator, after some products used on her shows saw their sales figures increase.
Background
Her given name originally being thought up by her grandmother, Nigella Lawson was born to Nigel Lawson (Baron Lawson of Blaby), a Conservative MP, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Margaret Thatcher's cabinet, and the late Vanessa Salmon, a socialite and member of the formerly influential Jewish family who co-owned the Lyons Corner House empire. The family kept homes in Kensington and Chelsea, but Lawson's parents divorced in 1980. They both remarried; her father in 1980 to a House of Commons researcher, Therese Maclear (to whom he is still married), and her mother, in the early 80s, to philosopher, Sir A.J. Ayer (they remained married until the mother's death). With Lawson's father being a prominent politician, one of the things she found most frustrating was the many judgements and pre-conceptions made about her. There was a time when Lawson did not get on with her father, mostly during her parents' divorce, and she only got on with her mother when she reached adulthood. Being unhappy as a child has been attributed, by Lawson, partly to the problematic relationship she had with her mother.
Lawson's school years were difficult; she had to move schools nine times between the ages of nine and 18, spending some of her childhood in Welsh town Higher Kinnerton. "I was just difficult, disruptive, good at school work, but rude, I suspect, and too highly-strung", Lawson reflected. Her father originally chose not to believe the reports of her disruptive behaviour and thought the school had the wrong person. Lawson reluctantly attended a private school in the Midlands and later returned to London's Godolphin and Latymer School sixth form where she began to show skill academically. She worked for many department stores in London, and went on to graduate from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University with a degree in medieval and modern languages. She also lived in Florence for a period.
Lawson's mother died of liver cancer in Westminster, London, aged 48 in 1985, when Lawson was 25. Her full-blood siblings are sister Thomasina, who died of breast cancer in 1993 during her early thirties; another sister, Horatia; and a brother, Dominic, former editor of The Sunday Telegraph . She has a half-brother Tom, and a half-sister Emily, her father's children with his current wife. She is also a cousin to both George Monbiot and Fiona Shackleton through the Salmons.
Taking part in the third series of the BBC family-history documentary series, Who Do You Think You Are? , Lawson sought to uncover some of her family's ancestry. She traced her ancestors to Ashkenazi Jews who originate from eastern Europe and Germany, leaving Lawson surprised not to have Iberian-Sephardi ancestry in the family as she had believed. She also uncovered that her maternal great-great-great grandfather, Coenraad Sammes (later Coleman Joseph), had fled to England from Amsterdam in 1830 to escape a prison sentence following a conviction for theft. It was his daughter, Hannah, who married Samuel Gluckstein, father-in-law and business partner of Barnett Salmon and father of Isidore and Montague Gluckstein, who together with Barnett founded J. Lyons and Co. in 1887.
Career
Early work
Lawson originally worked in publishing, first taking a job under publisher, Naim Attallah. At 23, she commenced her journalism career after Charles Moore had invited her to write for The Spectator . Her initial work at the magazine consisted of writing book reviews, after which period she became a restaurant critic there in 1985. She went on to become the deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times in 1986 at the age of 26. Lawson occasionally drifted into the public's eye, attracting unwanted publicity in 1989 when she admitted voting for Labour in an election as opposed to her father's Conservative Party, and then criticized Thatcher in print. Regarding her political relationship with her father, Lawson has stated, "My father would never expect me to agree with him about anything in particular. And, to be honest, we never talk about politics much."
After her stint at The Sunday Times , Lawson embarked upon a freelance writing career, realizing that "I was on the wrong ladder. I didn’t want to be an executive, being paid to worry rather than think". In the United Kingdom, she wrote for The Daily Telegraph , The Evening Standard , The Observer , and penned a food column for Vogue and a makeup column for The Times Magazine , as well as working with Gourmet and Bon Appetit in the United States. After just two weeks working on Talk Radio in 1995, Lawson was sacked after she had stated her shopping was done for her which was deemed incompatible with the radio station's desired "common touch".
1998–2002: Cookery writing and Nigella Bites
Lawson had an established sense of cooking from her childhood, having had a mother who enjoyed to cook. Lawson conceived the idea of writing a cookery book after she observed a dinner party host in tears due to an unset crème caramel. How to Eat was subsequently written in 1998, featuring culinary tips on preparation and saving time. The book became a success and sold 300,000 copies in the UK; The Sunday Telegraph dubbed it "he most valuable culinary guide published this decade".
Lawson then wrote How to be a Domestic Goddess in 2000, which focused primarily on baking and also became a bestseller. The Times wrote, regarding the book and Lawson's approach to its writing, " How To Be a Domestic Goddess ... is defined by its intimate, companionable approach. She is not issuing matronly instructions like Delia; she is merely making sisterly suggestions". Lawson rejected feminist criticism of her book, and stated, "Some people did take the domestic goddess title literally rather than ironically. It was about the pleasures of feeling like one rather than actually being one". The book sold 180,000 copies in four months, and won Lawson the title of Author of The Year at the British Book Awards in 2001, fending off competition from authors such as J. K. Rowling. One commentator suggested she only won the award because her husband was about to die of cancer. Lawson retorted, "I am not against pity, but I have no desire to be tragic". How to Eat and How to be a Domestic Goddess were published in America in 2000 and 2001. As a result of the book's success, The Observer took on Lawson as a social affairs columnist.
Lawson next hosted her own cookery television series, Nigella Bites , which ran from 2000 to 2001 on Channel 4, followed by a Christmas special in 2001. Victor Lewis-Smith, a critic notorious for his biting criticism, commended Lawson for being "formidably charismatic". The first series of Nigella Bites averaged 1.9 million viewers, and won her the Television Broadcast of the Year at the Guild of Food Writers Awards and the Best Television Food Show at the World Food Media Awards in 2001. The show yielded an accompanying bestselling recipe book, also called Nigella Bites , for which Waterstone's book stores reported UK sales of over 300,000. The book won a W H Smith Award for Lifestyle Book of the Year.
The Nigella Bites series, which was filmed in her home in west London, was later broadcast on American television on channels E! and Style Network. Lawson said of the US release, "In the UK, my viewers have responded to the fact I'm trying to reduce, not add to, their burden and I'm looking forward to making that connection with Style viewers across the US". Overall, Lawson was well received in the United States. Those who did criticise her often suggested she was too flirtatious; a commentator from The New York Times said, "Lawson's
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