Testament of Lost Youth: The Early Life and Loves of Vera Brittain

A nuanced exploration of Vera Brittain’s early life, revealing how her privileged Edwardian upbringing shaped her iconic legacy. Vera Brittain is one of the twentieth century’s most significant feminist and pacifist figures. Her 1933 best-selling First World War memoir, Testament of Youth, is acclaimed as one of the most important autobiographies of the last hundred years. Testament of Lost Youth is the first book to examine Vera’s cossetted middle-class upbringing in once-fashionable Buxton, between 1905 and 1915. She condemned her ‘provincial young ladyhood’ with remorseless fervour, but were her criticisms justified, or is there a more complex, nuanced story? Drawing on Vera’s own diary, letters, and a wealth of historical sources, Kathryn Ecclestone uncovers the hidden layers of Vera’s privileged early life. Her book challenges traditional portrayals to shed new light on the unique social atmosphere of Edwardian Buxton, Vera’s schooling and experience of university, her family, social and love life, before a harrowing journey through the First World War, where she lost her fiance, adored brother and many friends and acquaintances. From her intellectual awakening to her battles against societal constraints, this book, filled with images of Vera and her family, presents a nuanced exploration of a remarkable woman, revealing how her early life shaped and inspired the icon the world came to know.