Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson Biography

Successful, prolific journalist and broadcaster Nigella Lawson has been described as Britain's "It Girl." One of England's most recognized culinary personalities and the U.K.'s most beautiful woman, Lawson now takes on America with her extremely popular cooking and lifestyle series, Forever Summer with Nigella.

Born in 1960, Nigella read Medieval and Modern Languages at Oxford and went on to pursue a successful career in journalism, becoming Deputy Literary Editor of The Sunday Times. This was followed by a successful freelance career writing for a range of publications, from The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Times Magazine in the UK to Gourmet and Bon Appetit in the USA.

Nigella's love of cooking and food started at home, becoming part of her working life when she started the restaurant column in The Spectator and later wrote the food column for Vogue. Her first book, HOW TO EAT: The pleasures and principles of good food was published to critical acclaim in 1998. It established Nigella's relaxed attitude to food and eating and won her a wide and dedicated audience.

With her unique and refreshing approach to cookery, Nigella Lawson motto is simple: "To achieve maximum pleasure through minimum effort. HOW TO EAT was the basis for Nigella's successful Channel 4 series, Nigella Bites. The second series was accompanied by a tie in book of the same name, which stayed in the bestseller lists for several months and helped to take her worldwide book sales past the 1.5 million mark.

In 2000 Nigella introduced a whole new generation to the art of baking with another bestseller, ironically titled, HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS: Baking and the art of comfort cooking. In 2001 Nigella was voted author of the year at the British Book Awards and her Nigella Bites Christmas Special went out in December that year.

In 1992 Nigella married fellow journalist and broadcaster John Diamond. John was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997 and died in 2001. Nigella lives in London with their two children, Cosima and Bruno.

Autumn 2002 sees a new direction for Nigella with an exciting TV series and tie-in book, FOREVER SUMMER, full of recipes to prolong that lazy, warm summer feeling through the darker days of winter.

Not a stranger to the public eye, Lawson is the daughter of Nigel Lawson, who served as Margaret Thatcher's Chancellor of the Exchequer, ranking second most powerful person in the government at the time. Lawson is also the widow of John Diamond, a popular British TV host and journalist. She has one daughter, Cosima, and son, Bruno.

In 2005 ITV announced a new daytime show, Nigella!

In May 2005 Nigella Lawson came fifth in Harpers & Queen's list of the 100 most beautiful women.