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.
She and Vera Brittain
regularly attended the League of Nations Assembly
in Geneva. In 1924 they went on a lecture tour of Central Europe for the Union.
Shaw, Marion. The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby. Virago.
112-13
Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus.
Critic Arnold Rattenbury
feels that STW
's decision to join the Communist Party was the logical outcome of her earlier political choices, rather than a change of direction or feeling.
Rattenbury, Arnold. “How the sanity of poets can be edited away”. London Review of Books, pp. 15-19.
18
She and Ackland were...
politics
Winifred Holtby
WH
credited Vera Brittain
with making her a feminist during their years at Oxford. Before then, Winifred claimed that her mother's strong presence within her family had left her unaware that women suffered social and...
She became an activist for pacifism, a movement in which she played many roles. She joined the Union for Democratic Control
, whose meetings were soon being held at her home (and whose members included...
EPL
went to prison at least five more times over the course of her fight for female suffrage. She did not suffer from claustrophobia or anxiety in later imprisonments; on the contrary, at times she...
politics
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
Christabel Pankhurst
had escaped imprisonment by going into hiding in Paris. The Pethick-Lawrences were released on bail on 28 March, and their trial was set for 15 May. It ran until 22 May. The...
politics
Mary Stott
She scorned much of the debate as waffle but admired the clear, warm voice and the lucid, rational analysis offered by Shirley Williams
(daughter of Vera Brittain
). Sitting with other, mostly young women in...
Author summary
May Cannan
MC
was a war poet in and shortly after the First World War. In her (posthumously published) autobiography she performs, from a different viewpoint, something of the same function as Vera Brittain
as the historian...
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.