Nigella Lawson

After graduating from Oxford, Lawson started 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 her first cookery book, How to Eat, was published and sold 300,000 copies, becoming a best-seller. Her second book, How to Be a Domestic Goddess, was published in 2000, winning the British Book Award for Author of the Year. Multiple television series in the UK and US followed, all with accompanying books, many million-selling and award-winning in their own right. It was revealed by leaked Whitehall documents in 2003 that Lawson declined an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 2001, allegedly commenting that ‘I’m not saving lives and I’m not doing anything other than something I absolutely love.’