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.
SJ
reviewed her friend Vera Brittain
's Testament of Youth for the Sunday Times.
Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell.
2, 269
Reception
Phyllis Bentley
A Modern Tragedy is one of PB
's better-known novels.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
She was somewhat offended when her friend Vera Brittain
told her that she thought that the character of Elaine from this novel was based on...
Residence
Winifred Holtby
Now or soon afterwards WH
and Vera Brittain
began sharing their first London flat at 52 Doughty Street, Bloomsbury.
Biographers of Brittain date this event as happening in January 1922.
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
166-7
Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell.
159, 161
Shaw, Marion. The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby. Virago.
106
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...
SJ
did not remain solely at Heathfield throughout the war. Like Vera Brittain
, she took rooms in London in Portland Place: while Brittain wote England's Hour (published in 1941 and dedicated to Jameson)...
Textual Features
Winifred Holtby
Although not explicitly autobiographical, The Crowded Street owes much to WH
's relationship with Vera Brittain
: Brittain recognized herself in Delia, and Holtby remarked that Muriel was part of me only—the stupid frightened part...
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...
Textual Features
Storm Jameson
The author discusses her literary and political strategies in a letter to Evelyn Sharp
in the month of publication. I am sending you a book written first against war. I thought that I should more...
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
The novel is defined by its subtitle as a Comedy of Irrelevance, and is dedicated to Vera Brittain
, V.S.V.D.L. Irrelevantly.
Holtby, Winifred. Mandoa! Mandoa!: A Comedy of Irrelevance. Virago Press.
prelims
WH
signed her letters to Brittain v.s.v.d.l.—very small, very dear love.
Shaw, Marion. The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby. Virago.
115
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...
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
She had struggled to finish this novel in the final months of her illness.
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
316
Appointed her literary executor, Vera Brittain
saw it through to publication after WH
's death, correcting the typescript and delivering...
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
After WH
completed The Crowded Street, she began work on a historical romance based on the life of John Wycliffe
and titled The Runners.
Shaw, Marion. The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby. Virago.
114
By February 1927, nine publishers had rejected this...
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
Vera Brittain
compiled a posthumous collection of WH
's poetry, published as The Frozen Earth, and Other Poems.
Dowson, Jane, editor. Women’s Poetry of the 1930s: A Critical Anthology. Routledge.
62-3
Textual Production
Winifred Holtby
This political drama, originally titled Hope of Thousands, was completed just months before Holtby's death in 1935, and by 1939 had not reached production. Vera Brittain
arranged to have it published with minor revisions...
