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.
Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. My Part in a Changing World. Hyperion.
338
Back in England, she contacted Vera Brittain
after having read Brittain's Testament of Youth, 1933, to invite Brittain to visit the...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Jenkins
EJ
was mildly satirical about the left-wing and anti-monarchical tendencies of Naomi Mitchison
(a well-known author of the times)
Jenkins, Elizabeth. The View from Downshire Hill. Michael Johnson.
105
and the allegedly somewhat self-important Vera Brittain
(who, felt Jenkins, had let the...
Friends, Associates
Stella Benson
This summer she spent a holiday at Varengeville in Normandy, with Naomi Mitchison
. She also met Sydney Schiff
(at Chesham in Buckinghamshire), and on 31 August 1925 had her first meeting with...
Friends, Associates
Annie S. Swan
During the 1930s ASS
became a friend and correspondent of Winifred Holtby
. They exchanged copies of their books. After Holtby's early death a correspondence developed between ASS
and Vera Brittain
.
Swan, Annie S. The Letters of Annie S. Swan. Editor Nicoll, Mildred Robertson, Hodder and Stoughton.
164-5, 171, 249
Family and Intimate relationships
Winifred Holtby
During her first year back at Oxford, WH
met Vera Brittain
, who was also returning to complete her degree.
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
140
After a difficult beginning (they disliked each other at first sight), they became lifelong...
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
,...
Family and Intimate relationships
Winifred Holtby
Vera Brittain
, who had believed and encouraged others to believe that WH
was in love with Harry Pearson
, got another male friend to propose to Holtby on her deathbed, so that she might...
Family and Intimate relationships
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
EPL
greatly admired Mark Guy Pearse
, an evangelical Christian socialist who co-founded the West London Mission
. She had known him since her childhood, and he became a second father to her.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Pearse supported...
Education
Doreen Wallace
At Somerville DW
became a close friend of Dorothy Sayers
(their religious and political disagreements later drove them apart) and in her circle met Vera Brittain
, Winifred Holtby
, and theSitwells
.
Leonardi, Susan J. Dangerous by Degrees: Women at Oxford and the Somerville College Novelists. Rutgers University Press.
57
Education
Dorothy L. Sayers
She earned first-class Honours, though as a woman she was not yet allowed to take a degree. While at Oxford
she met Vera Brittain
, who liked her on sight. She dressed flamboyantly and eccentrically...
Education
Margaret Kennedy
With the onset of war, the town had largely been emptied of male students, making women a more visible presence around the university. Somerville had a tradition of turning out successful women writers; in entering...
Education
Winifred Holtby
During both halves of her time at Oxford she dashed around on a very rusty cycle, cramming myriad activities into her schedule: lectures, tea parties, concerts, lacrosse matches, and meetings. I was born with a...
