Vera Brittain: A Life

by Mark Bostridge (Author), Mark Bostridge (Author), Paul Berry (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1996

  $3.25

  Vere Britain (1893-1970) is most vividly remembered for one of the best loved autobiographies of the Great War, TESTAMENT OF YOUTH. Written with the co-operation of her daughter Shirley Williams, this candid biography draws on unpublished letters and reminiscences to illuminate the life and personality of a courageous and complex woman whose views on war and marriage were ahead of her time. It reveals new facts about ill-fated engagement with Robert Leighton and about the circumstances of her brother's death in Italy; about her semi-detached marriage with George Caitlin, her close friendship with the novelist Winifred Holtby and a passionate entanglement with her New York publisher. Her uncompromising pacifism in WWII led to her condemnation of the Allies saturation bombing of Germany, and to her being considered a dangerous subversive, refused a visa her children in the USA where they had been evacuated. A brilliant portrait which takes us from the idealistic girl to the ambitious and combative survivor of two years and ultimatley to the older woman of disarming honesty and integrity.

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $3.25

  Vera Brittain is most widely known as the woman who immortalized a lost generation in her haunting autobiography of the Great War, TESTAMENT OF YOUTH. Writer, pacifist and feminist, she condemned her provincial background but remained acutely conscious of the conventional elements in her own character; she revealed a richly emotional life in her writing but was outwardly sober and reserved; she possessed a fierce desire for fame and recognition but was ready to sacrifice both on matters of principle. This biography - comprehensive, authoritative and immensely readable - confirms Vera Brittain's stature as one of the most remarkable women of our time.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1995

  $3.25

  A biography of the author of Testament of Youth , a biography of the Great War. Vera Britain's uncompromizing pacifism in World War II led to her courageous but unpopular condemnation of the Allies' saturation of Germany. Written with the co-operation of her daughter Shirley Williams, this biography draws on unpublished letters and reminiscences to illuminate the life and personality of a courageous and complex woman. The book reveals new facts about her brother's death in the trenches and about her relationship with Ronald Leighton and it throws new light on her semi-detached marriage, her friendship with Winifred Holtby and her combative personality.