Testament of Youth, the new film adaptation of Vera Brittain’s memoir about her experiences as a nurse in the first world war, is now on general release.
The book, published in 1933, is an autobiographical account of Brittain’s early years (1900-1925) that tells of her struggle for education in a society hostile to women’s learning and her experiences in the war. After abandoning studies at Oxford University, Brittain volunteered to serve as a nurse in France. As well as witnessing first-hand the horrors of war, she also suffered the personal loss of her brother, fiancé and close friends.
Following the war, Brittain returned to Oxford and began a career in journalism. In 1927 she started writing a regular column for the Manchester Guardian’s women’s page (launched in 1922).
From time to time the former nurse would refer back to her war experiences. In one column, from February 1928, she wrote about her memories of running a ward during the 1918 German Spring Offensive.
Later that year, she reflected on the ‘old days’ and how the wartime generation was coping:
Photograph: The Guardian
As remembrance ceremonies to mark Armistice Day took place in 1929, Brittain observed that “for the most part, war memorials, war paintings, and war literature reveal to a later generation only the work and agony of the men.”
One of Brittain’s first articles for the Guardian in 1927 was titled The Human Peacock - Man and his unattractiveness, while in August 1928 she addressed the accusation that women suffer from an inferiority complex.
Photograph: The Guardian
On the death of Emmeline Pankhurst in June 1928, Brittain wrote the appreciation Mrs Pankhurst and the older feminists - an impression by a younger one. Ten years later, in a speech in Manchester, she noted that a great feature of the Guardian was that it allowed “free speech” to its contributors.
