David Nokes FRSL  was a scholar of 18th century English literature known for his biographies of Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...

, John Gay

John Gay

John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...

, Jane Austen

Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...

 and Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

. He also penned screenplays, including a BBC adaptation of Samuel Richardson

Samuel Richardson

Samuel Richardson was an 18th-century English writer and printer. He is best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded , Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady and The History of Sir Charles Grandison...

's novel Clarissa

Clarissa

Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, published in 1748. It tells the tragic story of a heroine whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family, and is the longest real novelA completed work that has been released by a publisher in...

(1991) and an adaptation of Anne Brontë

Anne Brontë

Anne Brontë was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Brontë lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. For a couple of years she went to a...

's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1996). He was also a leading reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement

The Times Literary Supplement

The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...

 and the London Review of Books

London Review of Books

The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...

.

Nokes attended King's College School

King's College School

King's College School, commonly referred to as KCS, King's, or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school for day pupils in Wimbledon in south-west London. The school was founded as the junior department of King's College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand, before relocating to...

, Wimbledon, London. He received an MA from Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...

 in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1974. He started teaching at King’s College London in 1973, was elevated to reader in 1986 and then promoted to Professor of English Literature in 1998.

In 1994 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

Royal Society of Literature

The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...

.

Books

• Jonathan Swift: A Hypocrite Reversed (1985)
• John Gay: A Profession of Friendship (1995)
• Jane Austen: A Life (1997)
• Samuel Johnson: A Life
  Samuel Johnson: A Life
  Samuel Johnson: A Life is a prize-winning biography of 18th century English lexicographer Samuel Johnson by British literary critic David Nokes. It was published on October 27, 2009, shortly before the author's death...
  
  (2009)