Vera Brittain: A Life

Shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize, the NCR Non-Fiction Prize and the Fawcett Prize[photo]'This thoughtful portrait of a dauntless feminist and pacifist combines the readability of a novel with the authenticity of fact' Lyndall Gordon, Books of the Year, Independent Vera Brittain is most widely known as the woman who immortalised a lost generation in her autobiography of the Great War, Testament of Youth.This biography is the most comprehensive, authoritative life of one of the most remarkable women of her time.Based on unpublished papers and first-hand knowledge, the authors create a candid and sympathetic portrait of the writer, pacifist and feminist. They reveal the truth about Vera Brittain's 'semi-detached' marriage, her friendship with Winifred Holtby, and her relationships with her brother Edward and fiancé Roland Leighton, killed in the First World War, whose memory haunted her all her days.` They succeed triumphantly. A fascinating portrait' Fiona MacCarthy, Observer