Annabel Davis-Goff
Born (1942-02-19) 19 February 1942
County Waterford, Ireland[1]
Occupations
  • Novelist
  • screenwriter
  • essayist
  • academic
  • advocate
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1975; div. 1986)​
Children2
Parents
FamilyRachel Nichols (daughter-in-law)
Websiteannabeldavisgoff.com

Annabel Davis-Goff (born 19 February 1942) is an Irish novelist, academic, screenwriter and advocate, active in the United States.[2]

Early life

Davis-Goff was born to a Protestant family[3] in Ireland to Anglo-Irish parents. Her father was Sir Ernest William Davis-Goff, 3rd Bt; her mother was Alice Cynthia Sainthill Woodhouse. She left Ireland in her teens, and worked in England in television and film (she was listed as 'Continuity' in the credits for the films Walkabout and Performance) before moving to the United States. She lived for a while in California, and then moved to Connecticut upon her marriage.

Literary career

Davis-Goff is best known for her family memoir Walled Gardens (1990; new edition by Eland in 2008). She has published several lesser known books since, including The Dower House (1997), This Cold Country (2002) and The Fox’s Walk (2005). She has edited The Literary Companion to Gambling and has reviewed books for The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. The New Yorker and The Washington Post have labelled her work "exquisite" and "brilliant".

Advocacy

Davis-Goff teaches at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont. She has worked for more than 30 years with organizations that serve homeless families in New York City and is an advocate for prison reform.

Personal life

Davis-Goff was married to Hollywood film director Mike Nichols for 11 years, from 1975 to 1986,[3] until the marriage ended in divorce. They had 2 children together; Max Nichols (married to Rachel Alexander) and Jenny Nichols.[3] Mike Nichols died of a heart attack in 2014. Davis-Goff now divides her time between Manhattan and Vermont.

Her niece, Sarah Davis-Goff, is also an author, focusing on Ireland-based post-apocalyptic drama,[4] and is a founder of the publishing company Tramp Press.

References

  1. ↑ Truax, Alice (12 October 2003). "The Past Is a Native Country". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  2. ↑ Eland Books Archived 13 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 3 Bloom, Nate (2 February 2010). "American Olympic Medal Hopefuls". InterfaithFamily.com. Nichols and his third wife, Annabel Davis-Goff, who were married between 1975 and 1986, had two children: a daughter, Jenny, now around 32, and a son, Max, now 35.Davis-Goff is of Irish Protestant background and she has become a well known novelist in the last two decades.
  4. ↑ Davis-Goff, Sarah. "In praise of Annabel Davis-Goff, by Sarah Davis-Goff". The Irish Times. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
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