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

Early life

Davis-Goff was born to a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

family in Ireland to

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

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 film ''

Walkabout Walkabout is a rite of passage in Australian Aboriginal society, during which males undergo a journey during adolescence, typically ages 10 to 16, and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months to make the spiritual and traditiona ...

'') before moving to the United States. She lived for a while in California, and then moved to

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

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 ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

and

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

and

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

have labelled her work "exquisite" and "brilliant".

Advocacy

Davis-Goff teaches at

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

Bennington, Vermont Bennington is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns (county seats) of the county, the other being Manchester. As of the 2020 US Census, the population was 15,333. Bennington is the most populous t ...

. 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 Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...

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

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...

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

Tramp Press Tramp Press is a publishing company founded in Dublin in 2014 by Lisa Coen and Sarah Davis-Goff. It is an independent publisher that specialises in Irish fiction. The company is named after John Millington Synge's tramp, a reference to the bold ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis-Goff, Annabel 1942 births Living people Irish women writers People from County Waterford American women writers Women memoirists 20th-century Irish novelists 20th-century Irish non-fiction writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women