Title: Testament of youth
First published: 1933
Description: A vivid and passionate record of the years 1900 to 1925, this is Vera Brittain's haunting autobiography - a portrait of a young girl's life in prewar England and a heartbreaking document of the holocaust of war. The author tells us about the war she saw and poignantly describes how it was to watch the gradual destruction of her generation.

Raised in provincial comfort during a gentle age, Brittain won a scholarship to Oxford, then fell profoundly in love with a friend of her adored brother Edward, just as the country crept toward the edge of war.

We follow four agonizing years of war through Brittain's eyewitness accounts of life without hope in London and at the front in France. In 1915 she abandoned her studies and enlisted in the army as a voluntary nurse. By war's end Vera Brittain had become a convinced pacifist and feminist.

In 1919 she came back to Oxford to finish her studies. It was at this time that she met Winifred Holtby, who became her greatest friend and ally. Returning to London in 1921, she devoted herself to the cause of world peace and struggled to earn her living as a journalist.

First published in 1933, this famous best-seller was acclaimed as "the real war book of the women of England." In spirit and impact it is such a moving elegy to a lost generation that P.D. James wrote of it: "This is one of those books which help both form and define the mood of its time." Comparable to *All Quiet on the Western Front*, this powerful book is another classic of World War I - from a woman's point of view.
Subjects: Medical aspects of World War, 1914-1918, English Personal narratives, Personal narratives, English, British Personal narratives, Nurses, Hospitals, Pacifists, Women authors, English, Personal narratives, British, English Authors, Feminists, Medical care, World War, 1914-1918, Personal narratives, English Women authors, Authors, English, Medical aspects, Biography, Brittain, Vera,, World war, 1914-1918, personal narratives, Women authors, Nachkriegszeit, Weltkrieg, World War (1914-1918) fast (OCoLC)fst01180746, Military Nursing, Feminism, Warfare, Brittain, vera, 1893-1970, Authors, english, bibliography, World war, 1914-1918, hospitals, World war, 1914-1918, biography, Brittain, vera , 1893-1970, World war, 1914-1918--personal narratives, english, Authors, english--20th century--biography, Pacifists--great britain--biography, Feminists--great britain--biography, World war, 1914-1918--medical care, World war, 1914-1918--hospitals, Pr6003.r385 z479 2005, 828/.91209 b, War
Places: England, Great Britain
People: Vera Brittain (1893-1970)
Time periods: 20th century