Title: Letters from a lost generation
First published: 1998
Description: This poignant work collects letters written from 1913 to 1918 between Vera Brittain and four young men - her fiance Roland Leighton, her younger brother Edward, and their two close friends, Victor Richardson and Geoffrey Thurlow - who were killed in World War I. While this correspondence inspired Testament of Youth, Brittain's classic memoir of her wartime experiences, most of the letters are published here for the first time.

Taken together, the letters present a remarkable and profoundly moving portrait of five idealistic youths caught up in the cataclysm of war. Spanning the duration of the war, the letters vividly convey the uncertainty, confusion, and almost unbearable suspense of the tumultuous war years.

They offer both male and female perspectives and reveal important historical insights by allowing the reader to witness and understand the Great War from a variety of viewpoints: that of the soldier in the trenches, of the volunteer nurse in military hospitals, and even of the civilians on the home front. As World War I fades from living memory, these letters are a powerful and stirring testament to a generation forever shattered and haunted by grief, loss, and promise unfulfilled.
Subjects: Correspondence, World War, 1914-1918, Personal narratives, British, Friends and associates, British Personal narratives, Pacifists, Women authors, English, English Authors, English Women authors, Authors, English, Brittain, vera, 1893-1970, World war, 1914-1918, personal narratives, Great britain, biography
Places: Great Britain
People: Vera Brittain (1893-1970)
Time periods: 20th century