David Nokes FRSL 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). He was also a leading reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books.