Testament of Friendship: The Story of Winifred Holtby

Description

In her bestselling first volume of autobiography, TESTAMENT OF YOUTH, Vera Brittain passionately recorded the agonising years of the First World War, lamenting the destruction of a generation which for her included those she most dearly loved - her lover, her brother, her closest friends. In TESTAMENT OF FRIENDS, Brittain tells the story of the woman who helped her survive those tragic years - the writer Winifred Holtby. They met at Somerville College, Oxford, immediately after the war and their friendship continued through Vera's marriage and their separate but parallel writing careers until Winifred's untimely death at the age of thirty-seven. When she died her fame as a writer was about to reach its peak with the publication of her greatest novel, South Riding. A moving record of a friendship between two women of courage, determination and intelligence and a wonderful portrait of a lifelong love, TESTAMENT OF FRIENDSHIP now takes its rightful place as a Virago Modern Classic, with a new introduction by Mark Bostridge.

Vera Brittain (1893-1970) went up to Oxford but in 1914 left to enlist as a VAD nurse. After the war she returned to Oxford and met Winifred Holtby. She was a tireless supporter of pacifism and feminism, a prolific speaker, lecturer, journalist and writer. She wrote twenty-nine books.

Throughout their correspondence, the fragile Brittain is often painfully demanding - but the role of devoted supporter seems to gratify Holtby * Spectator * Holtby certainly helped Brittain write by looking after her children. But they also both helped each other work. And they each saved the other's best book * Guardian *