Testament of Youth

I have been wanting to read this for seven years after first seeing the movie and finally made it my first read of 2022. I thoroughly enjoy reading about history, and a memoir like Vera Brittain’s was a home run. This first hand account of a young woman caught up in the midst of WWI is a story of heartache and triumph in spite of an imaginable strife. I really enjoyed reading this and learning about a woman’s perspective before, during, and after the Great War. Vera’s story, like so many during that time, is heartbreaking but inspiring. She lost everyone she loved from her youth during the Great War but was able to serve her country and help soldiers as a VAD nurse.

I did very much enjoy the inclusion of poems and letters written between Roland and Vera throughout the book, it emphasized how personal their story is.

Apart from the sadness and loss of wartime, Vera outlines at large the societal changes for women due to the outbreak of war. This period was a huge historical turning point for women who were had to step up in society with men at war. What I found most interesting diving deeper in to this book was how Vera’s war experiences shaped her actions for the remainder of her life. Post war, Vera threw all her energy in feminism and pacifism fighting for change.

Because of the time period, the language of this book took me longer than normal to read through. I’d highly recommend this book if you enjoy reading historical accounts about WWI + WWII.