Vera Brittain : A Life

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 Robert Leighton and about the circumstances of her brother's death in Italy, her semi-detatched marrage with George Caitlan, 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.