Vera Brittain

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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.
Black and white, head-and-shoulders photo of Vera Brittain, looking straight at the camera, wearing a white shirt and a white scarf wrapped around her head.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Occupation Muriel Box
She had in fact discussed this venture with Sydney, and he had encouraged her. She had formerly been a non-active director of his publishing company Triton Books . She was able to capitalise her new...
Occupation Mary Stott
Following in the footsteps of Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby , MS became first virtual, then titular Editor of the Women's Page for the Manchester Guardian (latterly the Guardian).
Stott, Mary. Forgetting’s No Excuse. Faber and Faber.
63-4
Occupation Kathleen E. Innes
Among those drafted to form the Mandate's Honorary Council in Britain were prominent politicians, clergy, feminists, and writers such as Margaret Ashton , Margaret Bondfield , Vera Brittain , Arthur Henderson , Laurence Housman ,...
Occupation Margaret Haig, Viscountess Rhondda
Women contributors ranged widely: Rebecca West , Stella Benson , Cicely Hamilton , Members of Parliament Lady Nancy Astor and Ellen Wilkinson , Virginia Woolf , Naomi Mitchison , E. M. Delafield , Rose Macaulay
Material Conditions of Writing Winifred Holtby
WH began writing this novel, which was originally titled Anlaby Wold, in 1920 while she and Vera Brittain were still students at Oxford .
Gorham, Deborah. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life. Blackwell.
155
Literary responses Margaret Haig, Viscountess Rhondda
Virginia Woolf liked the work, but observed that MHVR was not subtle.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
5: 167
Close friend Winifred Holtby , journalist and novelist, thought that the autobiography was splendidly free from bunk,
Eoff, Shirley. Viscountess Rhondda: Equalitarian Feminist. Ohio State University Press.
103
a sentiment that...
Literary responses Rosamond Lehmann
Some commentators, including Vera Brittain , felt this essay too clearly reflected the influence of Virginia Woolf .
Hastings, Selina. Rosamond Lehmann. Chatto and Windus.
133
Critic Ruth Siegel commends it as displaying the assertiveness characteristic of Lehmann's expository prose, which could...
Literary responses Penelope Lively
With this book PL was a second time shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Moran, Mary Hurley. Penelope Lively. Twayne.
96
An actual biographer, Mark Bostridge , called this a fine book, and said he relished the parallels with his actual situation...
Literary responses Maude Royden
Many reviewers praised this book as a quintessential love story. The Christian Science Monitor called it a moving love story, as romantic in its way, as that of the Brownings, while the News Chronicle...
Literary responses Muriel Box
Its recent editors call it very much a beginner's piece of work with regard to dialogue and stage impact. Yet they feel it is valuable for exemplifying the way that feminist ideas survived and continued...
Literary responses Sylvia Pankhurst
Save the Mothers was well reviewed. George Bernard Shaw responded enthusiastically to the book, and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence expressed her pleasure at its positive reception. Vera Brittain also praised it, favourably comparing SP 's activism for...
Literary responses Storm Jameson
The appearance of Europe to Let struck a blow at SJ 's in any case faltering friendship with Vera Brittain . They quarrelled over the character Olga (Johnson) Stehlík in The Hour of Prague...
Literary responses Radclyffe Hall
A number of writers rallied in support of RH . E. M. Forster and Leonard Woolf drafted a letter protesting the suppression of The Well of Loneliness. Its signatories included Bernard Shaw , T. S. Eliot
Literary responses Storm Jameson
This text delivered a final blow to SJ 's long and close friendship with Vera Brittain (who had dedicated her political England's Hour to Jameson only that February). Not only did Brittain remain a staunch...
Literary responses Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
EPL 's involvement in the militant suffrage movement was necessarily controversial: contemporaries both lauded and reviled her. In her diary Virginia Woolf described EPL 's style of public speaking in 1918 with some disdain. I...

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