Vera Brittain

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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.
Black and white, head-and-shoulders photo of Vera Brittain, looking straight at the camera, wearing a white shirt and a white scarf wrapped around her head.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Publishing Dorothy Whipple
DW must have been writing and publishing stories before her first novel appeared, since she was working on High Wages when her Miss Boddy was printed in Everyman and she recorded it as her first...
politics Sylvia Townsend Warner
Critic Arnold Rattenbury feels that STW 's decision to join the Communist Party was the logical outcome of her earlier political choices, rather than a change of direction or feeling.
Rattenbury, Arnold. “How the sanity of poets can be edited away”. London Review of Books, pp. 15-19.
18
She and Ackland were...
Education Doreen Wallace
At Somerville DW became a close friend of Dorothy Sayers (their religious and political disagreements later drove them apart) and in her circle met Vera Brittain , Winifred Holtby , and theSitwells .
Leonardi, Susan J. Dangerous by Degrees: Women at Oxford and the Somerville College Novelists. Rutgers University Press.
57
Friends, Associates Annie S. Swan
During the 1930s ASS became a friend and correspondent of Winifred Holtby . They exchanged copies of their books. After Holtby's early death a correspondence developed between ASS and Vera Brittain .
Swan, Annie S. The Letters of Annie S. Swan. Editor Nicoll, Mildred Robertson, Hodder and Stoughton.
164-5, 171, 249
Literary responses Annie S. Swan
Among this book's admirers was Winifred Holtby , who had proffered advice from herself and Vera Brittain not to worry about reviews, and who then wrote favourable ones herself for both Good Housekeeping and Time...
Residence Jan Struther
She was upset when her friend Sheridan Russell (who worked with refugees and had introduced her to Adolf Placzek ) reproached her by letter for running to your lover at this terrible moment for your...
Literary responses Jan Struther
Responses in England were more mixed. Hardly any reviewers were able to refrain from snide comment about the inaccurate representation of their country, but most added a saving clause: the film was genuinely moving. But...
Occupation Mary Stott
Following in the footsteps of Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby , MS became first virtual, then titular Editor of the Women's Page for the Manchester Guardian (latterly the Guardian).
Stott, Mary. Forgetting’s No Excuse. Faber and Faber.
63-4
politics Mary Stott
She scorned much of the debate as waffle but admired the clear, warm voice and the lucid, rational analysis offered by Shirley Williams (daughter of Vera Brittain ). Sitting with other, mostly young women in...
Textual Production Stevie Smith
SS 's list of requisites for a critic or reviewer goes like this: Attention, impartiality, and no regard for age or sex.
Smith, Stevie. Me Again. Editors Barbera, Jack and William McBrien, Vintage.
173
In April 1941 she was reviewing for John O'London's, Country Life...
Friends, Associates Evelyn Sharp
Their many shared friends included Vera Brittain , Winifred Holtby , and the writer and politician Mary Agnes Hamilton . In 1940 Hamilton took Harry Gill , president of the Railway Clerks' Association and a...
Intertextuality and Influence Olive Schreiner
To Vera Brittain and some of her contemporaries, Women and Labour was the Bible of the Women's Movement. It influenced the writings of many early-twentieth-century feminists, including historian Alice Clark and suffragette Constance Lytton
Education Dorothy L. Sayers
She earned first-class Honours, though as a woman she was not yet allowed to take a degree. While at Oxford she met Vera Brittain , who liked her on sight. She dressed flamboyantly and eccentrically...
politics Dora Russell
The Council for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (forerunner of CND) was founded. DR was present at its inaugural meeting next day; other prominent members were Vera Brittain , Julian Huxley , J. B. Priestley
politics Dora Russell
It featured such speakers as Vera Brittain , Ethel Mannin , Naomi Mitchison , Marie Stopes , Desmond MacCarthy , Bertrand Russell , and G. B. Shaw . Papers given included DR 's Marriage and...

Timeline

14 May 1920: Time and Tide began publication, offering...

Building item

14 May 1920

Time and Tide began publication, offering a feminist approach to literature, politics, and the arts: Naomi Mitchison called it the first avowedly feminist literary journal with any class, in some ways ahead of its time.
Mitchison, Naomi. You May Well Ask: A Memoir 1920-1940. Gollancz.
168

14 October 1920: A week after the university statutes had...

National or international item

14 October 1920

A week after the university statutes had finally made women eligible for degrees, women graduates of Oxford gathered for the belated award of degrees which they had earned, most of them, years before.

May 1922: Madeline Linford launched the Manchester...

Building item

May 1922

Madeline Linford launched the Manchester Guardianwomen's page, which she produced on her own, with no editorial assistant. It was temporarily suspended during the Second World War.

24 February 1934: The National Council for Civil Liberties...

National or international item

24 February 1934

The National Council for Civil Liberties was founded by journalist Ronald Kidd , who had witnessed the treatment of hunger marchers in London in November 1932.

7 March 1936: Hitler marched into and appropriated the...

National or international item

7 March 1936

Hitler marched into and appropriated the Rhineland: neither France nor Britain opposed him.

27 September 1939: Warsaw fell to Hitler's invading army after...

National or international item

27 September 1939

Warsaw fell to Hitler 's invading army after twenty days' siege and bombardment.

September 1943: The Women's Publicity Planning Association...

Building item

September 1943

The Women's Publicity Planning Association sponsored a mass meeting at Central Hall, Westminster, in support of the proposed Equal Citizenship (Blanket) Bill which would end all forms of sex discrimination.

6 August 1945: The US dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima:...

National or international item

6 August 1945

The US dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima: by early twenty-first century the best estimate of those killed on the spot stood at approaching 140,000 people, plus many thousands more with obvious, serious injury.

17 February 1958: CND, or the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,...

Building item

17 February 1958

CND, or the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament , was founded at a public meeting in London; it held its first march that spring, at the Easter weekend.

October 1958: Women Speaking began publication, covering...

Building item

October 1958

Women Speaking began publication, covering work, religion, education and peace from a feminist angle.

March 1981: Breakaway Labour members of parliament—Roy...

National or international item

March 1981

Breakaway Labour members of parliament—Roy Jenkins , Shirley Williams (daughter of Vera Brittain ), David Owen , and William Rodgers —left the party to found the Social Democratic Party, or SDP .

November 1981: Shirley Williams (daughter of Vera Brittain)...

Women writers item

November 1981

Shirley Williams (daughter of Vera Brittain ) became the first member of the Gang of Four, leaders of the newly-founded Social Democratic Party , to win a seat in Parliament : for Crosby, Lancashire.

December 1982: Women Speaking, covering work, religion,...

Building item

December 1982

Women Speaking, covering work, religion, education and peace from a feminist angle, ended publication in London.

Texts

Brittain, Vera. "One of These Little Ones. . .": A Plea to Parents and Others for Europe’s Children. Andrew Dakers, 1943.
Catlin, Sir George Edward Gordon et al. Above All Nations. V. Gollancz, 1945.
Brittain, Vera. Account Rendered. Macmillan, 1945.
Brittain, Vera. Born 1925. Macmillan, 1948.
Brittain, Vera. Chronicle of Friendship. Editor Bishop, Alan, Gollancz, 1986.
Brittain, Vera. England’s Hour. Macmillan, 1941.
Holtby, Winifred. “Foreword”. Pavements at Anderby, edited by Hilda Stewart Reid and Vera Brittain, Collins, 1937, pp. 9-11.
Brittain, Vera. Halcyon. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1929.
Brittain, Vera. Honourable Estate. Gollancz, 1936.
Brittain, Vera. Humiliation with Honour. Andrew Dakers, 1942.
Eden-Green, Winifred, and Vera Brittain. “Introduction”. Testament of a Peace-Lover: Letters from Vera Brittain, edited by Winifred Eden-Green et al., Virago, 1988.
Brittain, Vera. Lady into Woman. Andrew Dakers, 1953.
Brittain, Vera. Not Without Honour. Grant Richards, 1924.
Holtby, Winifred. Pavements at Anderby. Editors Reid, Hilda Stewart and Vera Brittain, Collins, 1937.
Brittain, Vera. Pethick-Lawrence: A Portrait. George Allen and Unwin, 1963.
Brittain, Vera. Radclyffe Hall. Femina, 1968.
Brittain, Vera. Search After Sunrise. Macmillan, 1951.
Brittain, Vera. Seed of Chaos. The Bombing Restriction Committee, 1944.
Holtby, Winifred et al. Take Back Your Freedom. Editor Ginsbury, Norman, Jonathan Cape, 1939.
Brittain, Vera, and Winifred Holtby. Testament of a Generation. Editors Berry, Paul and Alan Bishop, Virago, 1985.
Brittain, Vera. Testament of a Peace-Lover: Letters from Vera Brittain. Editors Eden-Green, Winifred and Alan Eden-Green, Virago, 1988.
Brittain, Vera. Testament of Experience. Gollancz, 1957.
Brittain, Vera. Testament of Friendship. Macmillan, 1940.
Brittain, Vera, and Rosalind Delmar. Testament of Friendship. Virago, 1980.
Brittain, Vera. Testament of Youth. Gollancz, 1933.