Nigella was born on 6th January 1960 and is the daughter of Nigel Lawson a prominent politician in Margaret Thatcher's government, and the late Vanessa Salmon a socialite and heiress to the Lyons Corner House empire.

Nigella herself confesses that she was a difficult child. She was moved to different schools 5 times. "I was just difficult, disruptive, good at school work, but rude, I suspect, and too highly-strung," Lawson commented.

But her education didn't seem to suffer as Nigella graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Medieval and Modern Languages.

Nigella's early career started with her writing book reviews. She then went on to write a restaurant column for The Spectator in 1985. She became deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times a year later.

Her TV career began in the 1990s with guest spots on other shows. Nigella Bites was first broadcast in 2000

She met fellow journalist and broadcaster John Diamond in 1986 and they married in 1992. They had 2 children, Cosima and Bruno. John was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997 and died in 2001.

Nigella married Charles Saatchi in 2003.

Nigella Express:
130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast

The latest book by NIgella Lawson is written with the busy cook in mind. With our busy lifestyles we all need ideas to save time in the kitchen. Nigella Express delivers exactly what it promises. Great recipes with wonderful illustrations and of course that wonderful Nigella enthusiasm comes over in the writing.

Nigella Express is not set out in the usual chapters of appetizer, entree, dessert - but the chapters include complete meals. I like the way Nigella helps you put a whole meal together if you need to.

Great recipes to try from the book? Pea soup, mirin glazed salmon, and of course the caramel croissant pudding.

Nigella Express: 130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast

How to Eat:
The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food

"Cooking is not about just joining the dots, following one recipe slavishly and then moving on to the next," says British food writer Nigella Lawson. "It's about developing an understanding of food, a sense of assurance in the kitchen, about the simple desire to make yourself something to eat." Lawson is not a chef, but "an eater." She writes as if she's conversing with you while beating eggs or mincing garlic in your kitchen.

Nigella explains how to make the basics, such as roast chicken, soup stock, various sauces, cake, and ice cream. She teaches you to cook more esoteric dishes, such as grouse, white truffles (mushrooms, not chocolate), and "ham in Coca-Cola." She gives advice for entertaining over the holidays, quick cooking ("the real way to make life easier for yourself: cooking in advance"), cooking for yourself ("you don't have to belong to the drearily narcissistic learn-to-love-yourself school of thought to grasp that it might be a good thing to consider yourself worth cooking for"), and weekend lunches for six to eight people. Don't expect any concessions to health recommendations in the recipes here--Lawson makes liberal and unapologetic use of egg yolks, cream, and butter.

How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food