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
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
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.
155
Textual Production Winifred Holtby
WH dedicated the novel to her friend Jean Finlay McWilliam and took its title from a poem by Vera Brittain .
Holtby, Winifred. The Crowded Street. Virago.
prelims
The novel, completed in August 1923, did not wholly satisfy its author.
Hardisty, Claire, and Winifred Holtby. “Introduction”. The Crowded Street, Virago, p. ix - xiii.
ix
Travel Kathleen E. Innes
The tours were designed to acquaint League of Nations Union speakers with the workings of the League. Social and cultural events and tours of Geneva and environs were also arranged. Vera Brittain , a LNU...
Occupation Kathleen E. Innes
Among those drafted to form the Mandate's Honorary Council in Britain were prominent politicians, clergy, feminists, and writers such as Margaret Ashton , Margaret Bondfield , Vera Brittain , Arthur Henderson , Laurence Housman ,...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Kathleen E. Innes
The pamphlet maintains that those who do not actually engage in the battle are perhaps in a position to make a saner judgment upon it as a whole than those who do.
Innes, Kathleen E. Women and War. Friends’ Peace Committee.
2
Harvey, Kathryn. "Driven by War into Politics": A Feminist Biography of Kathleen Innes. University of Alberta.
210
KEI
Publishing Storm Jameson
The plans for this publication were set in motion at a dinner party at the Wellington Club, hosted by Viscount Cecil and organized primarily by Jameson and Philip Noel-Baker . SJ also edited the...
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...
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 Storm Jameson
SJ wrote to Vera Brittain (who had recently reviewed her), thereby initiating a close friendship which, however, was neither wholly relaxed nor in the long run lasting. Jameson and Winifred Holtby , both Yorkshirewomen, more...
Friends, Associates Storm Jameson
SJ invited Vera Brittain live with her and her sister's family at Heathfield, the house they had taken at Mortimer in Berkshire. Brittain accepted, and stayed about ten weeks.
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
405, 556
Publishing Storm Jameson
SJ reviewed her friend Vera Brittain 's Testament of Youth for the Sunday Times.
Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell.
2, 269
Textual Production Storm Jameson
SJ edited and wrote in Challenge to Death: A Symposium on War and Peace, an anthology featuring Vera Brittain , Winifred Holtby , Rebecca West , Edmund Blunden , Julian Huxley , J. B. Priestley , and Guy Chapman .
Birkett, Jennifer. Margaret Storm Jameson: A Life. Oxford University Press.
123n53
Jameson, Storm, editor. Challenge to Death. Constable.
prelims
Jameson, Storm. Journey from the North. Harper and Row.
326-7
Family and Intimate relationships Storm Jameson
While he studied at the London School of Economics, Jameson supported their household, sometimes taking on more commercial work rather than devoting herself to further intellectual experiment. In their biography of Vera Brittain ,...

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