Vera Brittain

Mark Bostridge

F or nearly a decade I have wanted, with a growing sense of urgency, to write something which would show what the whole War and post-war period — roughly, from the years leading up to 1914 until about 1935 — has meant to the men and women of my generation, the generation of those boys and girls who grewupjust before the War broke out. Iwanted to give too, if I could, an impression of the changes which that period brought about in the minds and lives of very different groups of individuals belonging to the large section of middle-class society from which my own family comes.

Testament of Youth

Andrew John Kinney

This is completes my survey of World War One literature and personal histories, at least for the moment. It is hard to imagine how much the war generation lost; in Vera Brittain's case, she lost her fiance', her twin brother, and two close male friends. She served as a nurse in France, and the killing pace of her work, for years, treating horribly wounded men possibly contributed to her rapid decline into dementia at the relatively early age of 72. She worked tirelessly on the behalf of pacifist causes; her experience caring for the wounded and dying, combined with her personal losses, perfectly fitted her to advocate for peace. She was also an early feminist, and was one of the first female Oxford graduates. Poignant and sad, Vera Brittain's story is the story of educated young people during the Great War. Her anger at what happened is easy to understand; never has an older generation so thoroughly betrayed the young as in WW1.

Francine Corry

Ann Gabrielle

Joshua Line

In 1914 Vera Brittain was eighteen and, as war was declared, she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life - and the life of her whole generation - had changed in a way that was unimaginable in the tranquil pre-war era. TESTAMENT OF YOUTH, one of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, is Brittain's account of how she survived the period; how she lost the man she loved; how she nursed the wounded and how she emerged into an altered world. A passionate record of a lost generation, it made Vera Brittain one of the best-loved writers of her time.

An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925

Hannah Swithinbank

In 1914 Vera Brittain was twenty, and as war was declared she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life - and the life of her whole generation - had changed in a way that would have been unimaginable in the tranquil pre-war era. TESTAMENT OF YOUTH, one of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, is Brittain's account of how she survived those agonising years; how she lost the man she loved; how she nursed the wounded and how she emerged into an altered world. A passionate record of a lost generation, it made Vera Brittain one of the best loved writers of her time, and has lost none of its power to shock, move and enthral readers since its first publication in 1933.