Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Vera Brittain
-
Standard Name: Brittain, Vera
Birth Name: Vera Mary Brittain
From her university days before the First World War, VB
was determined to be a writer. Her career as a novelist never fulfilled her own expectations; it was not until the publication of Testament of Youth, the first of her volumes combining autobiography with social and cultural history, that she achieved significant success. She also wrote both poetry and pamphlets. Much of her oeuvre is politically engaged, from her feminist journalism and social criticism of the 1920s to her pacifist writings of World War II.
The appearance of Europe to Let struck a blow at SJ
's in any case faltering friendship with Vera Brittain
. They quarrelled over the character Olga (Johnson) Stehlík in The Hour of Prague...
Literary responses
Storm Jameson
This text delivered a final blow to SJ
's long and close friendship with Vera Brittain
(who had dedicated her political England's Hour to Jameson only that February). Not only did Brittain remain a staunch...
Textual Features
Storm Jameson
Throughout this work SJ
glosses over such events as marriage, divorce, and illness in favour of examining her psychology and behaviour, her struggle to balance motherhood and a public career, the value of creative writing...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Jenkins
EJ
was mildly satirical about the left-wing and anti-monarchical tendencies of Naomi Mitchison
(a well-known author of the times)
Jenkins, Elizabeth. The View from Downshire Hill. Michael Johnson.
105
and the allegedly somewhat self-important Vera Brittain
(who, felt Jenkins, had let the...
With the onset of war, the town had largely been emptied of male students, making women a more visible presence around the university. Somerville had a tradition of turning out successful women writers; in entering...
Some commentators, including Vera Brittain
, felt this essay too clearly reflected the influence of Virginia Woolf
.
Hastings, Selina. Rosamond Lehmann. Chatto and Windus.
133
Critic Ruth Siegel
commends it as displaying the assertiveness characteristic of Lehmann's expository prose, which could...
Literary responses
Penelope Lively
With this book PL
was a second time shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Moran, Mary Hurley. Penelope Lively. Twayne.
96
An actual biographer, Mark Bostridge
, called this a fine book, and said he relished the parallels with his actual situation...
Friends, Associates
Rose Macaulay
In 1921 RM
was spending several nights a week in a room she rented in the large house of writer Naomi Royde-Smith
at 44 Prince's Gardens, Kensington.
Emery, Jane. Rose Macaulay: A Writer’s Life. John Murray.
191
Babington Smith, Constance. Rose Macaulay. Collins.
100
Chosen by Royde-Smith as a...
politics
Margaret Haig, Viscountess Rhondda
The group's agenda was to obtain legislative improvements in child-assault laws, the position of unmarried mothers, equality of both parents in guardianship rights, equal pay for teachers, equal civic service opportunities for women and men...
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
5: 167
Close friend Winifred Holtby
, journalist and novelist, thought that the autobiography was splendidly free from bunk,
Eoff, Shirley. Viscountess Rhondda: Equalitarian Feminist. Ohio State University Press.
103
a sentiment that...
Friends, Associates
Una Marson
In May 1949, UM
invited Vera Brittain
to Kingston to speak to young Jamaican writers and encourage their literary work.
Jarrett-Macauley, Delia. The Life of Una Marson, 1905-65. Manchester University Press.
183
politics
Lady Ottoline Morrell
She became an activist for pacifism, a movement in which she played many roles. She joined the Union for Democratic Control
, whose meetings were soon being held at her home (and whose members included...
