David Nokes Book order

First published in 1995, David Nokes' major biography of John Gay (1685-1732) was the first full-length life of Gay for over fifty years, and drew on hitherto unpublished letters.

Presents a portrait of Swift in author's multifarious roles as satirist, politician, churchman and friend. Drawing on the most recent scholarship, this book seeks in particular to re-establish a proper balance between Swift's public and private lives.

A harmless joke spirals into chaos at a conference in Wales, where experts on the 18th-century poet Madoc gather in a secluded venue run by a religious sect. The attendees, a mix of shady and repressed academics, are obsessed with discovering an unknown page from Madoc's works. When a new canto unexpectedly surfaces, it ignites a series of vengeful plots and grotesque confrontations, leading to a literary disaster. This darkly satirical debut weaves a sharp social commentary reminiscent of Swift and Pope.

In this reassessment of an often misunderstood subject, Nokes explores beneath the surface of Jane Austen's apparently calm existence to uncover the psychological dramas which shaped her fiction and forged her insight into human emotions.