A selection of the powerful and poignant wartime letters of Vera Brittain and her friends."If war spares me," wrote Vera Brittain to her brother Edward in 1916, "it will be my one aim to immortalise in a book the story of us four." Seventeen years later, Vera was to achieve her aim with the acclaimed Testament of Youth.
This series of letters was the inspiration behind Testament. Written between Vera, her brother, her fiance Roland Leighton and their two best friends Victor Richardson and Geoffrey Thurlow, they give a unique perspective on the most horrifying conflict the world has ever seen.
They show the heartbreaking disillusionment of an idealistic public-school generation, raised on ideas of patriotism and duty, as the reality of war emerged. Yet they also give a fascinating insight into the era as a whole: their generation's literary tastes and the place of women in society.
Read by Amanda Root, Jonathan Firth, Rupert Graves, James Wallace and Robert Portal, and first heard on BBC Radio 4, these deeply moving letters let us hear for ourselves the voices of Vera Brittain's lost generation. 3 CD standard audio format.
About the Author: Vera Brittain attended Oxford after joining a Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse, serving in England, Malta, and France. After University, she began a career as a novelist, journalist, and lecturer. Her autobiographical account of her war experiences, Testament of Youth made her famous in 1933. Brittain (she kept her maiden name) became a committed feminist and pacifist, and was successful in publicizing both causes. She published 29 books, but was best known for her autobiographical works (including the sequel to Testament of Youth, Testament of Experience), and for her biography of the writer Winifred Holtby, Testament of Friendship. Vera Brittain died in 1970. Mark Bostridge was educated at Westminster School and Oxford University, where he won the Gladstone Memorial Prize. A former research assistant to Shirley Williams, he has reviewed for The Times Literary Supplement, The Times Educational Supplement, and the Literary Review. He currently works for BBC Television.
