Vivien Mary Noakes was a British biographer, editor and critic. She was 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...

.

Noakes was born Vivien Langley, the daughter of a noted aeronautical engineer, Marcus Langley. She was educated at Dunottar School, but left with A-levels, and it was not until later in life that she took her degree at Manchester College, Oxford, and Somerville College, Oxford

Somerville College, Oxford

Somerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there...

, where she was subsequently lecturer. She also lectured at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 and the Yale Center for British Art

Yale Center for British Art

The Yale Center for British Art is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut at Yale University which houses the most comprehensive collection of British Art outside the United Kingdom...

. She was an expert on Edward Lear

Edward Lear

Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...

 and on the literature of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

She was married to the painter Michael Noakes

Michael Noakes

Michael Noakes is an English artist and portrait painter.He was educated at Downside School, Somerset, and the Royal Academy Schools, London. His prime interests as a painter are in portraiture and landscape. He has been President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and Chairman of the...

, in collaboration with whom she produced The Daily Life of The Queen: An Artist's Diary (2000). They had three children: Anya, Jonathan and Benedict.

She died of cancer the day after her 74th birthday, a month after suffering a stroke.

Works

• Edward Lear, The Life of a Wanderer (1968)
• The Painter Edward Lear (1991)
• The Daily Life of The Queen: An Artist's Diary (2000) with Michael Noakes.