VERA BRITTAIN A LIFE

by Paul;Bostridge Berry

Vera Brittain is remembered for her autobiography, Testament of Youth, which covers the period of World War I. Written with the co-operation of her daughter Shirley Williams, this biography draws on letters and reminiscences to illuminate the life and personality of a woman whose views on war and marriage were ahead of her time. It reveals facts about her ill-fated engagement to Roland Leighton and about the circumstances of her brother's death in Italy, her semi-detatched marrage with George Catlan, her close friendship with the novelist Winifred Holtby, and a passionate entanglement with her New York publisher. Her uncompromising pacifism in World War II led to her condemnation of the Allies' saturation bombing of Germany and to her being considered a dangerous subversive, with the result that she was refused a visa to visit her children in the USA where they had been evacuated.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, World War I, History, British Literature

581 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Rosemary Atwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A balanced and sympathetic biography that adds much to ‘Testament of Youth’ and ‘Testament of Experience.’ Yet in spite of all her endeavours, Brittain remains irritatingly precious and constantly caught up in her own self-importance (as a recent revisiting of ‘Youth’ hinted) and further confirmed by her often prickly relationships and subsequent falling-outs with other authors and women friends.

However, Berry and Bostridge succeed admirably in bringing out the most positive aspects of her life and work throughout this excellent biography. Highly recommended.

[Allyson McGill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vera Brittain has been my hero for many years (decades...), and I have had this bio on my shelves for longer than I care to admit. I made it a mission to read it this summer, and I loved it. It's fascinating and gave me a greater understanding of Brittain's entire life. I think she would have been difficult to live with, but I still admire her greatly. She's still my main role model.

[Julie Bozza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent stuff. I was particularly interested in reading about her decades of work for feminism and pacifism.

[Avril · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a good book. Such a fascinating life. I knew of Brittain not primarily through Testament of Youth, which I’ve found too sad to ever read through properly, but through Testament of Friendship. I was afraid that once Winifred Holtby died my interest in Brittain’s life would wain, but quite otherwise. Her struggles with being a pacifist during World War Two completely fascinated me, and this retelling of them has almost convinced me (my own reason for not being able to identify as an absolute pacifist, despite believing that it is the only logical response to Christ’s teachings, is that I would almost undoubtedly have signed up to fight Hitler). I have already ordered two more of Brittain’s books to read, and I think that is the sign of a really good biography of a writer, that it sends you back to their writings.

[Vera Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I selected this book because Ms. Brittain is quoted in histories of WWI and she intrigued me. She was a writer, pacifist, feminist, wife, mother and friend who lived through two world wars and was a British leader in the movements for women's sufferage and peace. It was fascinating to live through those times through her eyes and through her family and friends. The book is maybe too detailed for me (523 pages) but fascinating and well-written.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid and thoughtful biography. Brittain is a tough subject, because while she was admirable in many ways, she was also clearly a difficult woman to deal with personally. Berry and Bostridge rise to the challenge and present a balanced picture, sympathetic to her tragedies and hardships, yet honest about her often fraught relationships with others.

[bookinglibrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some reason, I never read this definitive biography of Vera Brittain back when I was reading a lot by and about her. While I'm not sure how these two authors got paired up, Paul Berry was VB's literary executor and his co-author Mark Bostridge continues to write about VB and other topics. The text is engaging, informative and seamless, balancing Vera's continued accomplishments as well as her disappointments. It was these latter struggles - her difficult relationship with her son, the reception of her writing and the suddenly-caused slow decline of her own health--that imparts a particular sadness to the last portion of the book.

[My primary quibble with the co-authors is when they periodically refer to Vera Brittain and her husband, George Catlin, as "the Catlins" rather by than their individual names--her own name was something VB fought assiduously to maintain from the beginning of their relationship.]

[Darla Ebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a glorious read, it has everything PLUS it is nonfiction. Not that anyone would have wished upon the subject the tragedies that unfolded in her life. I will not give out any spoilers, I will just say only that Vera Brittain's life spanned decades which included both the First and Second World Wars.

[Helen Rudolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very readable biography, shedding light on the life of VB, her relationships and family. Not overall a happy life, not only because of the massive traumas of WW1 and the loss of her brother, fiancé and friends but also because VB comes across as a difficult, privileged and self centred woman. Her pacifism during WW2 is somewhat incoherent although understandable in her terms, given her experience in the last war. Testament of Youth remains a defining novel/autobiography for me and this book complements it.

[Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talk about adding depth to a story. As much as I enjoyed Testament of Youth, this book adds a third dimension, to present an almost holographic view of Vera's life.

We learn the back story on her marriage, her relationship with Winifred Holtby. Also, we learn about the unrequited crush that haunts her for nearly 20 years, and the info about her brother's death that would have been earth-shaking, in her time, if she'd been able to fully accept it.

Beyond the above, this is a story of a woman who appears to lose everyone of importance in her life during WWI while working, suffering, being used to her limits. Only to lose again, what is important and to suffer again during WWII. These later hardships--the bombing of London, the need to part with her children for two years! The personal persecution because she stands by her support of peace, and worked to relieve the hardships caused by the Allies of starving innocents--well she ends up on the "no fly" list of her own government, as well as the "round up and imprison if we invade England" list of the Nazis.

Then there is the whole intro to Winifred Holtby, a famous British writer in her time--with the BBC, recently, dramatizing one of her books--and unknown to most Americans of today.

Interesting how she was so respected when she preached for peace in the 1930's but then viewed almost as an enemy when she kept hr position into the war.

Nice, the way her feelings for George seem to deepen as she ages.

Then there are her children (some of this info goes beyond the book):

1. John who has a dughter but also four sons, in a sense replacing the four young men she lost in WWI. Yet John is often cruel and critical and not someone she felt she could like.

2. Shirley--who lives her mothers dream for women, and her father's dream of public office, becoming a member of Parliament and a founder and first president of the Social Democrat Party which in turn created the Liberal Democrat Party. ALso, she becomes a Baroness! On her own! Without having to marry a Baron! AND a professor at the JFK school of Public Policy at Harvard. A daughter of whom Vera could be most proud.

Shirley seems to have had almost a charmed life. While her mother experienced her Oxford years as a lonely time where she was grieving for losses and feeling out of step with the younger, non-war-scarred, students, Shirley appeared to have fun. While attending Oxford, Shirley tours America as Cordelia in a stage production directed by Vanessa Redgrave's futrue husband Tony Richardson. Also Shirley's Oxford boyfriends are a. the future head of the British National Railroad and b. Roger Bannister, the first man to run the four mintue mile.