| Place of publication is London unless otherwise stated. VERA BRITTAIN WORKS Novels The Dark Tide, Grant Richards, 1923 Not Without Honour, Grant Richards, 1924 Honourable Estate: A Novel of Transition, Gollancz, 1936 Account Rendered, Macmillan, 1945, Virago, 1982 Born 1925. A Novel of Youth, Macmillan, 1948, Virago, 1982 Poetry Verses of a V.A.D., Erskine MacDonald, 1918 Poems of the War and After, Gollancz, 1934 Because You Died. Poetry and Prose of the First World War and After, Bostridge, M. (ed) Virago 2008 Memoirs Testament of Youth – an Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900 – 1925. Gollancz, 1933, Virago 1978 Thrice a Stranger. New Chapters of Autobiography, Gollancz, 1938 England’s Hour. An Autobiography 1939-1941, Macmillan 1941, Futura, 1981; Continuum 2005. Currently in print. Testament of Experience. An autobiographical study of the years 1925-1950, Gollancz, 1957, Virago, 1979 Biographies Testament of Friendship. The Story of Winifred Holtby, Macmillan, 1940, Virago, 1980 In the Steps of John Bunyan. An Excursion into Puritan England, Rich and Cowan, 1950 Pethick-Lawrence: A Portrait, 1963 Envoy Extraordinary. A Study of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit and her Contribution to Modern India, George Allen & Unwin, 1965 Pacifism Humiliation with Honour, Andrew Dakers, 1942 ‘One of These Little Ones…..’ A Plea to Parents and Others for Europe’s Children, Andrew Dakers, 1943 Seed of Chaos. What Mass Bombing Really Means, The Bombing Restriction Committee, 1944. Before its British appearance, the first draft of this had been published in the United States as “Massacre by Bombing” in the February 1944 edition of Fellowship, the magazine of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Between 1939 and 1946, Vera wrote and distributed some 200 issues of a discussion newsletter, Letter to Peace-Lovers. Selections of these were published in 1940 as War-Time Letters to Peace Lovers and in 1988 as Testament of a Peace Lover: Letters from Vera Brittain. Diaries Chronicle of Youth. Vera Brittain’s War Diary 1913 -1917, Bishop, A. ed. With Terry Smart, Gollancz, 1981, Phoenix Press, 2000. Bishop reduced the original text of Vera’s diary from about 250,000 words to 100,000 to emphasise her wartime experiences. Chronicle of Friendship: Vera Brittain’s diary of the Thirties, 1932-1939, Bishop, A. ed., Gollancz, 1986 Wartime Chronicle. Vera Brittain’s Diary 1939-1945. Bishop, A. ed., Gollanxz, 1989 Letters Letters from a Lost Generation – First World War Letters of Vera Brittain and Four Friends, Bishop, A. and Bostridge, M. eds. Little, Brown, 1998. Between Friends: the letters of Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby, Showalter, E. and Showalter, E. eds Virago, 2022. Journalism Testament of a Peace Lover. Letters from Vera Brittain, Eden-Green, W. and A. eds., Virago, 1988 Testament of a Generation: the journalism, of Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby, Berry, P. and Bishop, A. eds. Virago, 1998. History Women’s Work in Modern England, Noel Douglas, 1928 Lady into Woman. A History of Women from Victoria to Elizabeth II, Andrew Dakers, 1953 The Women at Oxford. A Fragment of History, Harrap, 1960 The Rebel Passion. A Short History of Some Pioneer Peacemakers, George Allen & Unwin, 1963 Vera Brittain and Oxford Extension | Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Miscellaneous On Becoming an Author, Hutchinson, 1947 Search After Sunrise, Macmillan 1951 DRAMATISATIONS AND DOCUMENTARIES BBC TV Testament of Youth, 1979 A highly acclaimed, award-winning drama series starring Cheryl Campbell. Broadcast in Britain and the United States, it was repeated in 1980 and 1992. Available on DVD. BBC Films Testament of Youth, 2014 This starred Alicia Vikander (who Shirley Williams thought bore a striking resemblance to her mother), Kit Harington, star of Game of Thrones, Dominic West and Emily Watson, and other well-known British actors. Review by Mark Kermode. Available on DVD. BBC Radio Letters of a Lost Generation, 1998 A dramatization of correspondence between Vera, Edward, Roland, Victor and Geoffrey. BBC Radio Vera Brittain: A Woman in Love and War, 2010 BBC Radio Edward Brittain and the Forgotten Front 2018 BBC Radio, Great Lives, 2012 BIOGRAPHIES Bailey, H. Vera Brittain. The Story of The Woman Who Wrote Testament of Youth, Penguin, 1987 (now out of print but available from second-hand book websites) Berry, P. and Bostridge, M. Vera Brittain. A Life, Chatto Windus, 1995. Written by Vera’s close friend Paul Berry and Mark Bostridge, a friend of Vera’s daughter Shirley Williams (and literary executor for the Vera Brittain Estate), it draws meticulously on an impressive range of sources to present a definitive account of Vera’s life. Ecclestone, K. Testament of Lost Youth. The Early Life and Loves of Vera Brittain. Pen& Sword, Barnsley. 2024. This biography challenges Vera’s remorselessly critical account of ‘provincial young ladyhood’ in the fashionable spa town of Buxton. Presenting a richer story of her upbringing and the unique, cossetted environment Edwardian Buxton offered the Brittains, it offers a nuanced account of how this period shaped the interests and character of a complicated, unusual and inspiring woman. Gorham, G. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life, Oxford, Blackwells, 1996. Deborah Gorham was Professor of History at Carlton University, Canada. Her biography is a useful overview of Vera’s evolution as a feminist and also points to a number of discrepancies between Vera’s accounts of her life (notably about Buxton and the First World War) in Testament of Youth and other writing. VERA BRITTAIN LITERARY ESTATE All Vera’s work is under copyright. Anyone wishing to quote from in oral or published form should contact the Literary Estate. http://www.verabrittain.co.uk/ ARCHIVES For researchers undertaking projects about Vera Brittain, there are two important archives. In 1971, the Vera Brittain Literary Archive was sold by the Vera Brittain Literary Estate to McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. It contains a huge amount of material including draft and final manuscripts of her published and unpublished work, photographs, correspondence, diaries, and personal ephemera such as the fountain pens she used for correspondence and early drafts of Testament of Youth. Vera Brittain fonds | McMaster University Library Somerville College has the Paul Berry archive, donated by the writer and lecturer Paul Berry (1919-99) who was a close friend of Vera Brittain (1893-1970) from 1942 until the end of her life. She appointed him a literary executor, and he later became one of her authorised biographers. This collection comprises carbon copies of letters from Vera to Paul Berry from 1942 to 1969, and wide-ranging material gathered and collated by Berry and Mark Bostridge in preparation of their Vera Brittain: A Life (Chatto & Windus, 1995). Further material, including letters and photographs, was donated by the family of Shirley Williams after her death in 2021 and by Mark Bostridge in 2022. Somerville College | Oxford College Archives www.some.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/VB-PB-Index.pdf RECENT MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES AND NEWS BBC Radio Derby – Secret Derbyshire, Vera Brittain: Did she actually hate Buxton?, February 2025 Buxton Advertiser Can Buxton find a home in its heart for Vera?, April 2025 Cumbria Life Vera Brittain’s little known connections to Cumbria, April 2025 Ecclestone, Kathryn Vera Brittain’s Early Life – Truth or Fiction? Pen & Sword, March 2025 Ecclestone, Kathryn Remember Great Brittain – Why doesn’t Buxton honour Vera Brittain, author of Testament of Youth? The Oldie, Spring 2025 VERA BRITTAIN’S FAMILY AND LITERARY CONTEMPORARIES Catlin, J. Human Quartet, Hamish Hamilton, 1987. A memoir by John Catlin, Vera’s son who died at the age of 50 in 1987. This is now out of print. Bentley, P. O Dreams, O Destinations, Gollancz, 1962. Memoir of Phyllis Bentley, acclaimed author of the 1930s, best known for her novel Inheritance, and who had a brief, intense and difficult friendship with Vera Brittain in the early 1930s. Glendenning, V. Rebecca West. A life, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1987. Rebecca West was a literary contemporary and friend of Vera and Winifred in 1920s and 1930s London. Holtby, W. Virginia Woolf, Wishart, 1932. Holtby, A. and McWilliam, J. eds. Winifred Holtby: letters to a friend, Collins, 1937. Correspondence from the 1920s and early 30s between Winifred Holtby and her friend in South Africa, Jean McWilliam with whom Winifred worked during the First World War. Lonsdale, S. Rebel Women Between the Wars, Manchester University Press, 2020. While Vera or Winifred are not in the scope of this book, it is useful for placing their lives after the First World War in a wider social context. Roiphe, K. Uncommon Arrangements: seven portraits of married life in London literary circles 1910 -1939, Virago Press, 2007. This has a long chapter on the living arrangements of Vera, Winifred and Gordon, and chapters on other marriages in their social circle during the 1920s and 1930s, including Rebecca West and H.G.Wells. Shaw, M. A Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby, Virago Press, 1999. Drawing on many unpublished sources, this is widely regarded as the definitive biography of Winifred Holtby and provides an in-depth account of her relationship with Vera Brittain. Review. Williams, S. Climbing the Bookshelves: the autobiography of Shirley Williams, Virago, 2010. The memoir by Vera’s daughter, the politician Shirley Williams, has important insights into life with her mother in 1930s London, and during the Second World War. History of education Avery, G. The Best Kind of Girl. A History of Girls’ Independent Schools, Andre Deutsch, 1991 DArmitage, W.G.H. Four hundred years of English Education, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1965. Gorham, D. The education of Vera and Edward Brittain: class and gender in an upper-middle-class family in late Victorian and Edwardian England, History of Education Review, Vol. 20, 22-38, 1990. Gorham, D. A woman at Oxford: Vera Brittain’s Somerville Experience, Historical Studies in Education, Vol. 3, 1-19, 1991. These two academic papers supplement the account in Gorham’s biography of Vera’s education. Marriott, J.R. Memories of Four Score Years: The Autobiography of the Late Sir John Marriott, Blackie and Son, 1946. In his role as what is now the Director of the University of Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education, John Marriott was one of Oxford’s most eminent academics assigned to give ‘extension lectures’ in towns around Britain. Robinson, J. Bluestockings. The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education, Penguin, 2009. This book offers some useful background context to Vera’s achievement in gaining admission to Somerville College in 1914 and her experiences once she was there. Waller, S. Pioneering Women’s Education: Dorothea Beale, An Unlikely Reformer, Barnsley, Pen & Sword Books, 2022. Although tangentially relevant to Vera’s experience of education in the early 1900s, it is useful for setting it in a wider context of women like Beale who paved the way for public schools in the 19th century to offer offered girls an education on a par with that available to boys. First World War Badsey, P. Vera Brittain – The Militant Pacifist: Misconceptions of her Importance in Military History | The Western Front Association Barker, P. Toby’s Room, Penguin, 2013. This novel is one of two which appears to have drawn some of its plot from Mark Bostridge’s research about the death of Edward Brittain (see also Winn, A below). Bishop, A. ‘The Battle of the Somme and Vera Brittain’, in English Literature of the Great War Revisited, edited by Michel Roucoux, University of Picardy, 1986 Braybon, G. Women Workers in the First World War. The British Experience. Croom Helm, 1981 Bostridge, M. Vera Brittain and the First World War, Bloomsbury, 2014. This study contains new research about the evolution of Testament of Youth and Edward Brittain’s death in 1918, and an account of Mark’s role in making the 2014 film starring Alice Vikander, Kit Harrington and a host of well-known British actors. Vera Brittain and the First World War: The Story of Testament of Youth: Mark Bostridge: Bloomsbury Continuum Bostridge, M. Fateful Year. England 1914, Penguin/Viking, 2014. A detailed portrait of the social and political climate of Britain in 1914: “a year that started in peace and ended in war”. Farr, D. None That Go Return, Leighton, Brittain and Friends and the Lost Generation 1914 -1918 Warwick, Helion Books, 2010. Explores the lives and tragic deaths of Edward, Roland, Victor and Geoffrey, and the wider context of the First World War. Hynes, S. A War Imagined. The First World War and English Culture, Bodley Head, 1990 Little, S. ‘No task too great: VADs and the Great War’, Lecture to Thirty-First Annual General Meeting of Western Front Association, Mansfield College, Oxford, 14 April 2012. Lomax, S. The Home Front: Derbyshire in the First World War, Barnsley, Pen & Sword, 2016. This detailed account of how the First World War affected towns and villages across Derbyshire contextualises Vera’s experience of returning from Oxford to Buxton to take up a post as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse at the Devonshire Hospital. Ouditt, S. Fighting Forces, Writing Women: Identity and Ideology in the First World War, Routledge, 1994. This explores the impact of the First World War on women, including their experience as Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses. Warwick, A. Women at War 1914 -1918, Fontana, 1977. Winn, A. In Memoriam, Penguin, 2023. This novel is one of two which appears to have drawn some of its plot from Mark Bostridge’s research on the death of Edward Brittain (see also Barker, P above). Pacifism Beale, A. Against all War. Fifty Years of Peace News 1936-1986, Peace News, 1986 Kelly, T. Battle of Conscience. British Pacifists and the Second World War. Penguin, 2024 Women’s Literature 1890 – 1940 Beaumann, N. A Very Great Profession: The Woman’s Novel 1914 – 1939, Virago, 1983, Persephone Books Kennard, J. Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby: a working partnership, University of New Hampshire, University Press of New England, 1989 Russell, D. Province, metropolis, and the literary career of Phyllis Bentley in the 1930s, The Historical Journal, Vol. 51, 3, 719-740, 2008. Showalter, E. A Literature of their Own. British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing, Virago, 1984 Buxton history Heape, R. Grundy Buxton under the Devonshires, London 1948 Langham,M. Buxton – a people’s history, Lancaster, Carnegie Publishing, 2001. Drawing on many unpublished and archive materials, this provides a detailed history of how the powerful Devonshire Estate engineered the evolution of a sedate Georgian spa resort into a booming fashionable and socially segregated town whose fashionable heyday came to an abrupt end in 1914. Lanhgam, M. and Wells, C. Buxton. A Pictorial History, Bognor Regis, Phillimore, 1993. This uses old photographs to illustrate Buxton during its Victorian and Edwardian heyday. Lomas, P. The Buxton Hydro (Spa Hotel) – the story of the spa town’s best known hydropathic between 1866 and 1974, Bakewell, Ashridge Press, 2008 Roberts, A. Buxton Through Time, Stroud, Amberley Publishing, 2012. This book uses a fascinating collection of old and new photographs to show many of Buxton’s remarkable and unique features from its Georgian heyday to the present day. Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust Discover Buxton – Bringing the history of Buxton to life These two companies specialise in bringing Buxton’s history to a present-day audience of visitors and residents, with events, guided tours and blogs. |