Gabriele Annan

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The Lady Annan
BornGabriele Ullstein
(1921-11-25)25 November 1921
Berlin, Germany
Died12 November 2013(2013-11-12) (aged 91)
Eaton Square, London, England
OccupationAuthor, and literary and film critic
NationalityBritish
Alma materNewnham College, Cambridge
SpouseNoel Annan, Baron Annan

Gabriele Annan, Baroness Annan (née Ullstein, 25 November 1921 – 12 November 2013), was a German-born British author and literary and film critic, and the wife of the military intelligence officer, author, and academic Noel Annan, Baron Annan.

Early life[edit]

She was born Gabriele Ullstein, on 25 November 1921 in Berlin, the daughter of Louis-Ferdinand Ullstein (1863–1933), one of five Jewish brothers who owned a large newspaper, magazine, and book publishing business, and his wife Martha Ullstein, née Joel (1889–1974).[1] She was the only child from her father's second marriage, and until the age of 11, lived in a mansion in the Grünewald, now the British Ambassador's Berlin residence.[2]

She was educated at a progressive boarding school in England, and earned a degree in modern languages from Newnham College, Cambridge.[1][2]

Career[edit]

After the war, she was a member of the Cambridge Ladies ski team, shared a London flat with Mary Blewitt, and worked in advertising, coming up with the slogan, "All the Boy Scouts at their Jamborees/eat lashings of Batchelors wonderful peas."[2]

Annan wrote literary criticism for The Spectator and The New York Review of Books.[2] She was an early advocate for the work of Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan and Alan Hollinghurst.[2]

She was a film critic for The Spectator and the Sunday Telegraph, until in 1987, they asked her for a review of the third Care Bears movie, The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland.[1]

Personal life[edit]

She met her future husband, the British military intelligence officer, author, and academic Noel Annan, Baron Annan (1916-2000), when he returned to King's College, Cambridge, following the Second World War.[1] They married on 30 June 1950, and had two daughters, Lucy, born in 1952, and Juliet, born in 1955.[1]

Later life[edit]

She died on 12 November 2013, of heart failure, at her flat in Eaton Square, London, and was survived by her two daughters.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Cannadine, David (2004). "Gabriele Annan [née Ullstein], Lady Annan (1921–2013)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). OUP. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/108311. Retrieved 24 November 2017. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b c d e "Gabriele Annan: Cosmopolitan author who wrote literary criticism for". The Independent. 15 February 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2017.