David Nokes FRSL (11 March 1948 – 19 November 2009) was a scholar of 18th-century English literature known for his biographies of Jonathan Swift, John Gay, Jane Austen, and Samuel Johnson. He also penned screenplays, including a BBC adaptation of Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa (1991) and an adaptation of Anne Brontë's novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1996).[1] He was also a leading reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books.[2]
Nokes attended King's College School, Wimbledon, London. He received an MA from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1974.[2] He started teaching at King's College London in 1973, was elevated to reader in 1986, and was promoted to Professor of English Literature in 1998.[2]
In 1994, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[3]