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.
The following year, however, SP
demonstrated diligent care for her mother's reputation: she was outraged by one paragraph in Ray Strachey
's The Cause. Though it expressed gratitude and admiration for Emmeline Pankhurst
...
Textual Production
Muriel Box
MB
's first contact with her future second husband arose out of correspondence about legal matters canvassed in this book.
Box, Muriel. Rebel Advocate. Victor Gollancz.
195
The work itself fulfilled the aim of Femina Books
: to produce titles with...
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
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...
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)...
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...
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...
Publishing
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
At first the journal appeared monthly for threepence an issue, but within six months it began appearing weekly for a penny an issue. Its circulation reached 30,000 by 1909, and much of its profits came...
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...
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
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Brittain, Vera, and Shirley Williams. Testament of Youth. Virago, 1978.
Brittain, Vera. The Dark Tide. Grant Richards, 1923.
Brittain, Vera. The Women at Oxford. George G. Harrap, 1960.
Brittain, Vera, editor. Vera Brittain’s Personal Letter to Peace-Lovers. V. Brittain.
Brittain, Vera. Verses of a VAD. Erskine MacDonald, 1918.
Brittain, Vera. Women’s Work in Modern England. Noel Douglas, 1928.
