Customer Reviews

Vera Brittain

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
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A collaboratively written biography by the late Paul Berry (who was Vera Brittain's close friend for 28 years and her literary executor) and London-based biographer Mark Bostridge, Vera Brittain: A Life is a lengthy and informative survey of the life and times of the writer, pacifist, and feminist Vera Brittain (1893-1970), who is perhaps best known as the author of "Testament of Youth," the memoir of her traumatic World War I experiences. The crushing loss of her fiance, younger brother, and two friends in World War I, her uphill battle to earn recognition as a writer, her controversial stance against the Allies' saturation bombing of Germany in World War II, and a great deal more are engagingly examined in thorough, candid detail. Vera Brittain is very highly recommended as a solidly written, deeply engaging, and totally involving study of a unique and outspoken woman's life.

It was quite an enjoyable read for us Brittain and Holtby fans. It interesting how she is still relevent in this day and age, how she really doesn't seem "dead" from a forgotten era. In this book you can find the little tidbits about Vera that speak to your own emotions even now, that make the person whole.

A wonderful book - highly readable, authoritative, and immensely engaging. It was shortlisted for the two main non-fiction prizes of the year of its firat appearance in the UK.