Laura Mason: Movies & Box Office

Laura Mason (1957–2021) was a distinguished British food historian and author who dedicated her career to exploring the rich culinary heritage of the United Kingdom. Born on 7 August 1957 in Ilkley, Yorkshire, she grew up in a household that valued both agriculture and history, with her father working as a farmer and her mother serving as a local historian. Mason pursued her education at Ilkley Grammar School before continuing her studies at Bradford College of Art, where she completed a foundation course, and later at Leeds Polytechnic, earning degrees in both home economics and food technology. These academic foundations provided her with the unique interdisciplinary perspective that would define her later work, combining scientific understanding of food with deep cultural appreciation. In 1976, she relocated to York, where she would spend the remainder of her life, becoming an integral part of the city's vibrant food community. Her personal life included marriages to Ian Tomlin, who passed away in 1982, and later to Derek Johnson in 2012.

Throughout her prolific career, Mason made significant contributions to the documentation and preservation of British food traditions. In 1992, she was appointed to the EU committee Euroterroirs, where she worked to identify and catalog national foods eligible for Protected Designation of Origin and Protected Geographical Indication status, focusing her research on England and Wales while collaborating with Catherine Brown on Scottish foods. This extensive research culminated in the publication of The Taste of Britain in 1997 (republished 2006), featuring a foreword by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. As research assistant to the renowned Alan Davidson, she authored numerous entries for The Oxford Companion to Food (1999). Her independent works include Sugar-Plums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets (1998), Sweets and Sweet Shops (1999), and Pine (2013), alongside several titles for the National Trust including Farmhouse Cookery (2005), Book of Crumbles (2018), Book of Afternoon Tea (2018), and Roasts (2019). Sadly, Mason passed away from cancer on 2 February 2021 at the age of 63, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the field of food history.