She attended Godolphin and Latymer School, London. After graduating from the University of Oxford, where she was a member of Lady Margaret Hall, 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. She published her second book in 2000, "How to Be a Domestic Goddess", which won her the British Book Award for Author of the Year.