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.
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...
Literary responses
Maude Royden
Many reviewers praised this book as a quintessential love story. The Christian Science Monitor called it a moving love story, as romantic in its way, as that of the Brownings, while the News Chronicle...
Literary responses
Muriel Box
Its recent editors call it very much a beginner's piece of work with regard to dialogue and stage impact. Yet they feel it is valuable for exemplifying the way that feminist ideas survived and continued...
Literary responses
Sylvia Pankhurst
Save the Mothers was well reviewed. George Bernard Shaw
responded enthusiastically to the book, and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
expressed her pleasure at its positive reception. Vera Brittain
also praised it, favourably comparing SP
's activism for...
Literary responses
Storm Jameson
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...
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...
Material Conditions of Writing
Winifred Holtby
WH
began writing this novel, which was originally titled Anlaby Wold, in 1920 while she and Vera Brittain
were still students at Oxford
.
Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell.
She had in fact discussed this venture with Sydney, and he had encouraged her. She had formerly been a non-active director of his publishing company Triton Books
. She was able to capitalise her new...
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
Other Life Event
Winifred Holtby
In January 1940 Vera Brittain
published Testament of Friendship: The Story of Winifred Holtby, an account of their friendship which continued unbroken and unspoilt for sixteen incomparable years.
Brittain, Vera, and Rosalind Delmar. Testament of Friendship. Virago.
2
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
337
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...
politics
Maude Royden
Before embarking on this trip, MR
sought advice from fellow feminist and pacifist Vera Brittain
, who had recently travelled to the US, on how best to approach the American people on the subject of peace.
