Portal:University of Oxford/Selected biography/15

Nigella Lawson (born 1960) is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. After graduating from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Lawson worked as a book reviewer and restaurant critic, later becoming the deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times. After working as a freelance journalist, Lawson brought out her first cookery book, How to Eat, which sold 300,000 copies and became a bestseller. For her second book, How to be a Domestic Goddess, she won the British Book Award for Author of The Year. In 2000, she began to host her own cookery series on Channel 4, Nigella Bites, which was accompanied with another bestselling cookery book. The series won her a Guild of Food Writers Award; her 2005 ITV daytime chat show 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. 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". (more...)