David Nokes FRSL (March 11, 1948 - November 19, 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 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1996).
He was also a leading reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books.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.
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.