Born in Hendon, north London,[3] Lawson was raised in Leeds, where his father was a marketing director for the Civil Service and British Telecom.

However, Richard Gott, a former colleague, commented in 2002 that the "prevalence of the bland and the obsequious" on The Guardian is typified by Lawson's "embedded presence".

[citation needed] Lawson became the main presenter of BBC Radio 4's daily arts programme, Front Row, in 1998.

[3] He has written several radio plays for the network, including St Graham and St Evelyn (2003) on the friendship between the Catholic novelists Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh and The Third Soldier Holds His Thighs (2005) on Mary Whitehouse's unsuccessful litigation against the National Theatre production of Howard Brenton's play The Romans in Britain.

[9] The Daily Telegraph reported on 5 March that Lawson was the presenter involved and he had been accused of "browbeating junior staff" who are often young freelancers.

Dr Tom Pimm is accused of sighing during departmental meetings, "divisive social invitations" and "visual Insubordination (sic) towards senior management".

In the book's afterword, Lawson writes It is the case that during a long, generally privileged and happy career in the media, I suffered one devastating experience of institutional group-think, baffling and contradictory management, false accusation and surreally sub-legal process; and have personal knowledge of the damage to reputation, employability and health that can result from such an ordeal.Lawson supports Northampton Town FC and frequently goes to games, both at Sixfields Stadium and away.