Testament of Youth

In 1914 Vera Brittain was 21 years old, and an undergraduate student at Somerville College, Oxford. When war broke out in August of that year, Brittain "temporarily" disrupted her studies to enrol as a volunteer nurse, nursing casualties both in England and on the Western Front. The next four years were to cause a deep rupture in Brittain's life, as she witnessed not only the horrors of war first hand, but also experienced the quadruple loss of her fiancé, her brother, and two close friends. Testament of Youth is a powerfully written, unsentimental memoir which has continued to move and enthral readers since its first publication in 1933. Brittain, a pacifist since her First World War experiences, prefaces the book with a fairy tale, in which Catherine, the heroine, encounters a fairy godmother and is given the choice of having either a happy youth or a happy old age. She selects the latter and so her fate is determined: "Now this woman," warns the tale, "was the destiny of poor Catherine." And we find as we delve deeper into the book that she was the destiny of poor Vera too.

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Heartbreaking Memoirs - Rated
I first read this book when studying for my A levels 25 years ago -it totally overpowered me then and now it still does.It is my all time favourite book because it has such humanity and love at its core.
Vera Brittain was an amazing woman and her early years as documented in Testament of Youth shaped her views for the rest of her life.
With the recent passing of Harry Patch the last WW1 Soldier I picked up this seminal work again to remind me of that generation and all they endured.
Vera's Courage whether it be fighting to gain an education at University, or working as a VAD Nurse while all the time one by one those she loves perish shines through .I still cannot read the poem after Roland's Death without tears falling.
This wonderful work will remain a classic - a benchmark for Womens Literature.I will continue to reread it and pass it on to my children as an important message is contained within.

Very moving - Rated
To be honest, I purchased the 'Testament of Youth' book as a study book for my A level English Literature exam, expecting it to be (well lets put it nicely) not really my type of book. However, as I started reading, I immediately found that this was a book that was worth the read. It is very moving and allows the reader to completely empathise with the character of Vera Brittain. However, the fact that this is completely true and it is the actual autobiography of sufferer Brittain, it makes the book even more amazing. I would totally recommend it to anyone who wants a TRUE story of love, war and terrible loss. It is so good that I have finished my exams and am still reading it!Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925 (Virago classic non-fiction)

this is a "must read" book - Rated
I would recommend this book to young and old,if everyone read this including politicians we may see the end of wars, as it exposes the tragedy and futility of war

Growing Up the Hard Way - Rated
Vera Brittain was a privileged, yet restricted young woman. She was very of her time in that she had to fight for everything that today's women tend to take for granted. The freedom to spend time with whomever she chose, to have privacy, even to receive an education, were all hard-fought. She belonged to the middle/upper class, with all the comforts that that status implies, even to the point of reaching adulthood without ever learning the simple task of boiling an egg.

She freely admitted that when the War broke out, it appeared to her to be an interruption and an inconvenience. She had no idea just how it would transform the world and her life. Five years later, she was a bitter, nightmare-ridden shadow of her former self.

Testament of Youth takes you from the time of Vera's childhood through 1925, when she is just starting a new, happier life. Making copious use of her own diaries, letters between herself and her friends, and the poetry and music of the time, she gives a lesson by means of immersion into her life. Her prose is extremely demanding and not for the faint of heart. There were many sections where I was only able to pick up just what she was saying from the context. Her vocabulary is dense and elaborate. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to rise to the occasion, but in the end I was richly rewarded.

The meat of Testament of Youth is Vera's writing of her wartime experiences as a nurse and as a worried sister, lover and friend of those serving in the trenches. I have never been so aware of just how debilitating this era in history was, not just to the soldiers, but to those who waited, worked and worried back at home.

The book runs out of steam after the War, and then Vera's completion of her education at Oxford. I didn't find her discussion of her work for the League of Nations Union nearly as interesting as the previous 450 pages, though I might have done if I'd known more about British political history. Testament of Youth shines when Vera is discussing her personal relationships and frailties. It is at these moments that the book grabbed me by the shoulders and absolutely refused to let me go.

Heavy Going - Rated
I dont think I have ever found a book so difficult to read as this one, and I still have not finished it, although I skip page after page of what is real dribble, she seems off in a world of her own and not really telling the reader anything, until one gets to the war years, and her life as a vad, and she goes on and on about her life but not telling a story which is boring in the extreme.