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.
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...
Forty-six years after Benson's death, Naomi Mitchison
acknowledged that her work had ceased being read, that her fantasy was misunderstood as whimsy. She felt, however, that in 1979 a revival was due.
Mitchison, Naomi. You May Well Ask: A Memoir 1920-1940. Gollancz.
127
It is...
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...
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
Intertextuality and Influence
May Cannan
The critic and family friend Sir Walter Raleigh
, who saw these poems before publication, called them heart-breaking and terribly naked.
Cannan, May, and Bevil Quiller-Couch. “Editorial Materials”. The Tears of War, edited by Charlotte Fyfe, Cavalier Books, p. Various pages.
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
Phyllis Bentley
PB
stayed with Vera Brittain
and Winifred Holtby
at the house in Glebe Place in Chelsea where they and Brittain's husband, George Catlin
, all lived.
Bentley, Phyllis. "O Dreams, O Destinations". Gollancz.
174
Brittain, Vera. Chronicle of Friendship. Editor Bishop, Alan, Gollancz.
38, 56
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.
Brittain, Vera. Chronicle of Friendship. Editor Bishop, Alan, Gollancz.
39-40
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...
Friends, Associates
Phyllis Bentley
Vera Brittain
introduced PB
, during her stay in Chelsea, to birth-control crusader Marie Stopes
.
Brittain, Vera. Chronicle of Friendship. Editor Bishop, Alan, Gollancz.
41
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
Friends, Associates
Winifred Holtby
Through her work with the Six Point Group
and Time and Tide, WH
met the founder of both, Margaret Haig, Lady Rhondda
. Their professional relationship grew into a friendship, and WH
dedicated her...
