Vera Brittain

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Vera Brittain Vera Mary Brittain was a British writer and pacifist, best remembered as the author of the best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth, recounting her experiences during World War I and the beginning of her journey towards pacifism. Brief Biography: - Vera Brittain was born in 1893. - She delayed her degree after one year in the summer of 1915 to work as a V.A.D. nurse for much of the First World War. - Her fiancé Roland Leighton, two other close friends Victor Richardson and Geoffrey Thurlow, and her brother Edward Brittain MC were all killed during the war. - In 1933 she published Testament of Youth, which was followed by the sequels Testament of Friendship and Testament of Experience. Vera Brittain wrote from the heart and based many of her novels on actual experiences and actual people. - In 1937 she joined the Peace Pledge Union and the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship. Her newly found pacifism came to the fore during World War II, when she began the series of Letters to Peacelovers. - She was a practical pacifist in the sense that she helped the war effort by working as a fire warden and raising funds for food relief campaigns but was vilified for speaking out against saturation bombing of German. - From the 1930s onward, she was a regular contributor to the pacifist magazine Peace News. She eventually became a member of the magazine's editorial board, and during the 1950s and 1960s wrote many articles against apartheid and colonialism and for nuclear disarmament. - She died in 1960. - Her daughter is the politician and academic Dame Shirley Williams. .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Commemorazione Di Vera Brittain
c/o Urban Center , Piazzetta Rossi Thiene sede legale: Piazzetta Ferrarin 1, 36016 Thiene Tel. 0445 804837 - fax 0445 804999 e-mail: [email protected] c.f. 03018920243 - c/c postale n.42840090 www.pedemontanavicentina.com Commemorazione di Vera Brittain Grande pacifista d'Europa le cui ceneri sono sparse nel cimitero di guerra britannico di Granezza (Lusiana) La manifestazione che segnerà l'avvio delle successive attività di celebrazione della Grande Guerra nel territorio della Pedemontana Veneta. LA VITA Grande pacifista d'Europa, Vera Brittain nacque il 29 dicembre 1883 a Newcastle-under- Lyme in Inghilterra. Dopo aver iniziato gli studi ad Oxford, incapace di stare a guardare attendendo con angoscia il susseguirsi degli eventi bellici da poco scopiati, come moltre altre giovani donne, sentì il bisogno di impegnarsi in prima persona e, in seguito all'arruolamento dell'amato fratello Edward e del fidanzato Roland Leighton, nel 1915 lasciò gli studi per arruolarsi come infermiera volontaria nel Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) e portare il proprio aiuto ai numerosi soldati britannici impegnati al fronte. Dopo la morte del fidanzato Ronald, unitosi al Reggimento Worcestershire, ancor più dura fu pe Vera la morte di Edward, avvenuta in battaglia il 15 giugno 1918. Rimasta praticamente sola dopo un susseguirsi di perdite degli affetti a lei più cari, la scrittrice decise di pubblicare i diari personali e le lettere scambiate con il fratello durante la fitta corrispondenza che i due mantennero nell'arco del conflitto, ricchi di testimonianze sugli sconvolgenti anni della Prima Guerra Mondiale. E proprio queste testimonianze fecere di lei una delle scrittrici più amate di sempre nel mondo anglosassone, il cui nome si lega alla celebre opera del 1933, Testament of Youth e dov'è possibile scorgere anche le difficoltà incontrate dalla scrittrice nel ritornare alla qutidianità dopo i duri anni del conflitto.
[Show full text]
Testament of Youth Is a 2014 British Film Basen the First World War
Testament of Youth is a British drama film released in 2014 and based on the First World War memoirs written by Vera Brittain. “They'll want to forget you. They'll want me to forget. But I can't. I won't. This is my promise to you now. All of you.” Vera Brittain This film retraces the story of Vera Brittain during the first world war. Her life before the war started and her experiences during the war are fabulously interpreted by Alicia Vikander. The actors Kit Harington, Taron Egerton and Colin Morgan also make her story even more touching. Vera wants to become a writer even if it goes against her father's expectations. She passes the entrance examination for Oxford to join her brother Edward and his friends Roland and Victor. Before going there, with Roland, who shares his interest for her poetry and writing, they begin a romance. But war is declared and it changes all their plans. Roland, Victor and her brother decide to join the British army and are sent to the western front. To get closer to them Vera decides to volunteer as nurse in the hospital... This film is really emotional. It shows how war can affect people, not only physically but a lso mentally. War destroys families, innocence and future. As Vera Brittain said : “Our generation would never be new again. Our youth has been stolen from us.” The fact that she really lived those moments makes you watch the film in a different way and that is one of the reasons why I liked this film and why I recommend it..
[Show full text]
Vera Brittain: Feminism, Pacifism and Problem of Class, Yvonne A
Vera Brittain: Feminism, Pacifism and Problem Of ClaSS, Yvonne A. Bennett 1900-1953 CaHetonUn^tv ABSTRACT In this century and until very recent years, the English feminist movement and the English pacifist movement have demonstrated a tendency to reflect a strongly middle-class bias, in both leadership and rank and file, which has possibly-though not intentionally-retarded the overall growth of each movement. For both feminism and pacifism the central questions have been and remain those relating to the conjoint problems of effective political translation and the surmounting of class barriers. This paper explores these questions through an examination of the work of the English feminist and pacifist, Vera Brittain (1893-1970). In this century, and until very recent years, the English British society on the eve of the First World War was one of feminist movement and the English pacifist movement have great inequality, a fact compounded by the hermetic divisions 2 demonstrated a tendency to reflect a strongly middle-class between classes. Testament of Youth is, in part, an account bias, in both leadership and rank and file, which has of the struggle of one upper-middle-class woman against the possibly—though not intentionally—retarded the overall restrictions imposed by late Victorian and Edwardian society growth of each movement. For both feminism and pacifism upon women of her class. From her middle teens Brittain had the central questions have been and remain those relating to become angrily aware of what she perceived to be the restric• the conjoint problems of effective political translation and tive nature of her upbringing and of the constraints that the surmounting of class barriers.
[Show full text]
Vera Brittain and Madeleine Clemenceau Jacquemaire’S Interwar Nurse Memoirs
Myth, Countermyth and the Politics of Memory: Vera Brittain and Madeleine Clemenceau Jacquemaire’s Interwar Nurse Memoirs Alison Fell University of Leeds Synergies Royaume-Uni Royaume-Uni Summary: This article examines the interwar memoirs written by two First-World-War nurses: Testament of Youth (1933) by British VAD Vera Brittain, and Les Hommes de bonne volonté (1919) by Madeleine Clemenceau 11-22 pp. Jacquemaire, daughter of the French prime minister and Red Cross nurse. It et explores the ways in which these authors challenge the dominant stereotypes Irlande (both positive and negative) of the nurse prevalent during the war, before outlining the alternative images – or countermyths – that they construct in n° 4 their own autobiographical writings. It argues that both authors make use of their nursing experiences as a means of endowing themselves with veteran - 2011 status, thereby allowing them access to the almost exclusively male genre of war writing that gained in popularity during the interwar years. The article concludes that because of the double status of these women, who were both active participants in and passive witnesses to the war, their narratives remain necessarily ambiguous. This reflects more generally the uncomfortable position – between combatant and non-combatant status – in which many female war workers found themselves. Keywords: war, nurse, Brittain, Clemenceau Jacquemaire, interwar, memoir Résumé : Cet article examine les mémoires de l’entre-deux-guerres écrits par deux infirmières de la Première Guerre mondiale : Testament of Youth (1933) de Vera Brittain, VAD (infirmière bénévole) britannique et Les Hommes de bonne volonté (1919) de Madeleine Clemenceau Jacquemaire, fille du premier ministre français et infirmière de la Croix-Rouge.
[Show full text]
Was a Close Friend of Vera Brittain (1893-1970) from 1942 Until the End of Her Life
VERA BRITTAIN/PAUL BERRY Archive The writer and lecturer Paul Berry (1919-99) was a close friend of Vera Brittain (1893-1970) from 1942 until the end of her life. She appointed him a literary executor, and he later became one of her authorised biographers. This collection comprises his correspondence with VB, and a wide-ranging and varied archive of material gathered and collated by Berry and Mark Bostridge in preparation of their Vera Brittain: A Life (Chatto & Windus, 1995). Berry bequeathed the collection to Somerville College, where Brittain was an undergraduate from 1914-15 & 1919-21. Below is a summary of the collection’s contents; a full catalogue is available on request. Index, by Box number: 1 Vera Brittain-Paul Berry: original letters 1942-60, with P B’s commentary. 2 As above, 1961-9. 3 Vera Brittain-Edith Brittain (her mother): original letters, 1902-21; photocopies of correspondence involving VB & her brother Edward (1913 & 1918), her daughter Shirley Williams (1952-7), her fiancé Roland Leighton (1914), and his sister Clare (1918-35). Misc. Brittain/Bervon (VB’s maternal grandparents)/Catlin (VB’s husband) family documents, including copies of birth, marriage & death certificates, and family trees. 4 Vera Brittain-George Catlin: photocopies of letters 1924-65, with PB’s commentary. 5 George Catlin: original letters GC-PB 1967-78, typed copies PB-GC, 1968-78; misc biographical material, including a photographic portrait by Karsh. 6-10 Vera Brittain’s Diaries: photocopies from 1911, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944-5; photocopies from diaries 1939-68; edited typescripts of World War One Diary & Diary of the Thirties.
[Show full text]
Vera Brittain: Feminism and Pacifism in Post-War Britain
FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES Trabajo de Fin de Grado Vera Brittain: Feminism and Pacifism in Post-War Britain Cristina Sánchez Sánchez Antonio Rodríguez Celada Salamanca, 2016 1 FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES Trabajo de Fin de Grado Vera Brittain: Feminism and Pacifism in Post-War Britain This dissertation is submitted for the degree of English Studies Date 5th July 2016 Tutor: Antonio R. Celada Vº Bº Signature 2 Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………. 5 1. The perception of war………………………………………………….5 2. Great War Poets: from aesthetic to compromise………………………6 3. A female perspective on war and war literature……………………….8 4. A room of Vera's own………………………………………………….9 5. Post-war Britain……………………………………………………...12 6. Post-war Vera: pacifism and feminism………………………………14 7. Testament of Youth's imprint today…………………………………..15 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..16 Works cited…………………………………………………………………….17 3 ABSTRACT This paper deals with Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth as an example of war narrative to establish the importance of the female voice in the complete treatment of a story, as well as the importance of a feminist and pacifist ideology in a modern world. Vera Brittain thus becomes a relevant figure in these fields, considering several aspects of her life: her autobiography, her experience as a V.A.D. nurse in World War I, the loss of a brother, a friend and her fiancé to it, and her role as an author and politic activist. KEYWORDS: Vera Brittain, World War I, England, feminism, pacifism, literature, poetry, autobiography RESUMEN Este trabajo utiliza el libro Testament of Youth de Vera Brittain como ejemplo de narrativa de guerra para establecer la importancia de la voz femenina en el tratamiento completo de una historia, así como la importancia de una ideología feminista y pacifista en una sociedad moderna.
[Show full text]
Writing the Vote Suffrage, Gender and Politics
4 Sowon S Park and Kathryn Laing Writing the Vote Suffrage, Gender and Politics In the last two decades, revisionist historical accounts have illuminated crucial links between the pre-War suffrage movement and interwar feminism, whether by analysing post-1918 feminist organisations or scrutinising the suffrage roots of the women’s wings of the main political parties.1 Yet the continuous narrative of feminist activism is still seldom brought to bear on British women’s literary history, and women writers of the 1920s and 30s are rarely seen in relation to suffragists. A prevailing perception is that the works of other writers whose careers flourished during this period, such as Rose Macaulay, E. M. Delafield, Nancy Mitford, Rosamond Lehmann, Mary Agnes Hamilton, Elizabeth Bowen, Kate O’Brien, Naomi Mitchison, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Virginia Woolf, to name a few, emerged as part of a new modernist, ‘intermodernist’ or ‘feminine middlebrow’ print culture of 1 See Cheryl Law, Suffrage and Power: The Women’s Movement 1918–1928 (London: I B Tauris, 1998), Laura E. Nym Mayhall, The Militant Suffrage Movement: Citizenship and Resistance in Britain, 1860–1930 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). the interwar period, rather than as a continuation of the suffrage legacy. Seen in this light, women’s literature of the interwar period is reduced to individual expressions of a highly personal set of preoccupations and isolated from the collective political agency that gave rise to a period of prolific literary innovation. What follows in this chapter is a retracing of the relations between pre-War and interwar women’s writing and a reconsideration of the connection between political activism and literary production.
[Show full text]
Margaret Glover Images of Peace in Britain
MARGARET GLOVER IMAGES OF PEACE IN BRITAIN: FROM THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR’ (University of Reading: unpublished Ph.D thesis, 2002) Two volumes: volume 1 – 378 pages, with appendices; volume 2 – 474 images This thesis investigates the rich range of images and outlets associated with pacifism, and considers the changing palette and motifs of peace, especially between 1900 and 1940. The author embeds the display of peace into the history of the peace movement. Quakers were at the heart of the peace movement, driving it forward through the Boer, Spanish Civil, First and Second World Wars, and sustaining and nourishing its longevity and integrity. Indeed, the author has revealed their archive of Friends’ peace posters to be integral to her thesis and to twentieth-century pacifism. Other groups are included; the Peace Pledge Union, Artists’ International Association and Pax feature most strongly. The art and design of Birmingham Quaker Joseph E. Southall and Catholic Eric Gill form a large part of the thesis. However, the thesis reveals how central were amateurs and local campaigners to the production of peace images and peace activism. Moreover, the tensions that war and pacifism provoked are explored throughout. The author utilises a range of methodological approaches and incorporates not only what peace imagery consisted of, but also its media – such as posters, the pacifist press, buttonholes and the art – as well as display outlets: for example, the body, the street, peace shops, placards, pageants, processions, vehicles, exhibitions, cinema and theatre. KEYWORDS: pacifism; peace movement; Quakers; Peace Testimony; Peace Pledge Union; peace exhibitions; peace shops; peace imagery; peace posters; peace badges; white poppies; Peace News; Spanish Civil War; World War One; World War Two; Artists International Association; Peggy Smith; Dick Sheppard; Joseph E.
[Show full text]
Trauma, Testimony, and Community in Vera Brittain's "Testament of Youth" Author(S): Richard Badenhausen Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol
Mourning through Memoir: Trauma, Testimony, and Community in Vera Brittain's "Testament of Youth" Author(s): Richard Badenhausen Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Winter, 2003), pp. 421-448 Published by: Hofstra University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3176034 . Accessed: 22/01/2011 19:26 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=hofstra. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Hofstra University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Twentieth Century Literature. http://www.jstor.org
[Show full text]
Testament of Youth
Mongrel Media Presents BBC FILMS AND HEYDAY FILMS SCREEN YORKSHIRE AND BFI Present in association with HOTWELLS PRODUCTIONS, NORDISK FILM PRODUCTION and LIPSYNC TESTAMENT OF YOUTH Directed by James Kent Based on Vera Brittain’s memoir 129 mins Distribution Publicity Bonne Smith Star PR 1028 Queen Street West Tel: 416-488-4436 Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6J 1H6 Fax: 416-488-8438 Tel: 416-516-9775 Fax: 416-516-0651 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] www.mongrelmedia.com High res stills may be downloaded from http://www.mongrelmedia.com CREDITS CAST Vera Brittain Alicia Vikander Roland Leighton Kit Harington Edward Brittain Taron Egerton Mrs. Brittain Emily Watson Hope Milroy Hayley Atwell Victor Richardson Colin Morgan Aunt Belle Joanna Scanlan Mr. Brittain Dominic West Miss Lorimer Miranda Richardson DIRECTED BY James Kent PRODUCED BY David Heyman, Rosie Alison SCREENPLAY BY Juliette Towhidi Based on Vera Brittain’s “TESTAMENT OF YOUTH” EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Christine Langan, Joe Oppenheimer, Hugo Heppell, Zygi Kamasa, Richard Mansell CO-PRODUCER Celia Duval DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Rob Hardy, B.S.C. EDITED BY Lucia Zucchetti, A.C.E. COSTUME DESIGNER Consolata Boyle MAKE-UP & HAIR DESIGN Christine Walmesley-Cotham MUSIC BY Max Richter 3 SHORT SYNOPSIS Testament of Youth is a powerful story of love, war and remembrance, based on the First World War memoir by Vera Brittain, which has become the classic testimony of that war from a woman’s point of view. A searing journey from youthful hopes and dreams to the edge of despair and back again, it’s a film about young love, the futility of war and how to make sense of the darkest times.
[Show full text]
Emotional Partings
2 Emotional partings Bidding farewell to his older brother as he embarked on the first stage of his journey to the Western Front was, according to Pat Campbell, ‘the unhappiest parting I have ever experienced’. Only on the cusp of leave-taking did Pat appreciate the enormity of what his brother faced. Nearly sixty years later, the sight of a departing train still had the power to disturb him.1 Trauma experts Charles Figley and William Nash assert that deployment to the war zone is a ‘transformative process’ for everyone involved.2 Even the familiar terrain of the railway platform took on a heightened intensity amid the whirlwind of mobilisation. Strangers joined with intimates to see off loved ones. Such moments can be seen as theatre or specta- cle, belying their emotional import as testified by their prevalence in sibling narratives.3 Caught up in the initial novelty, siblings expe- rienced and recorded a range of emotional responses. As the war progressed, the cumulative effects of saying goodbye took their toll on those left at home. Sibling narratives reveal varied responses to appeals to serve their country, supplementing existing evidence challenging the myth of war enthusiasm.4 Bewilderment and dread were common emotions, in stark contrast to the jingoism that greeted the Boer War.5 Nicola Martin challenges the chronology of the reconceptualisation of heroic masculinity, arguing that this underwent a sea-change long before the Armistice.6 Fraternal narratives offer up an even earlier starting point. From the outset, men’s fears for their brothers’ and their families’ wellbeing and economic prosperity present a more nuanced picture of masculinity.
[Show full text]
Vera Brittain-Paul Berry Index
VERA BRITTAIN/PAUL BERRY Archive The writer and lecturer Paul Berry (1919-99) was a close friend of Vera Brittain (1893-1970) from 1942 until the end of her life. She appointed him a literary executor, and he later became one of her authorised biographers. This collection comprises his correspondence with VB, and a wide-ranging and varied archive of material gathered and collated by Berry and Mark Bostridge in preparation of their Vera Brittain: A Life (Chatto & Windus, 1995). Berry bequeathed the collection to Somerville College, where Brittain was an undergraduate from 1914-15 & 1919-21. Below is a summary of the collection’s contents; a full catalogue is available on request. Index, by Box number: 1 Vera Brittain-Paul Berry: original letters 1942-60, with P B’s commentary. 2 As above, 1961-9. 3 Vera Brittain-Edith Brittain (her mother), photocopies of correspondence 1902-21; photocopies of correspondence involving VB & her brother Edward (1913 & 1918), her daughter Shirley Williams (1952-7), her fiancé Roland Leighton (1914), and his sister Clare (1918-35). Misc. Brittain/Bervon (VB’s maternal grandparents)/Catlin (VB’s husband) family documents, including copies of birth, marriage & death certificates, and family trees. 4 Vera Brittain-George Catlin: photocopies of letters 1924-65, with PB’s commentary. 5 George Catlin: original letters GC-PB 1967-78, typed copies PB-GC, 1968-78; misc biographical material, including a photographic portrait by Karsh. 6-10 Vera Brittain’s Diaries: photocopies from 1911, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944-5; photocopies from diaries 1939-68; edited typescripts of World War One Diary & Diary of the Thirties (ed.
[Show full text]