Testament of Experience

Testament Trilogy #3

by Vera Brittain

Testament of Experience

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Memoir, Autobiography, Biography Memoir, Literature

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Vera Mary Brittain was an English writer and pacifist, best remembered as the author of the best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth, recounting her experiences during World War I and the beginning of her journey towards pacifism.

Her daughter is Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, who is a British politician and academic who represents the Liberal Democrats.

Reviews

[Melanie Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a pertinent read at this point in time.... It outlines Vera Brittain's interwar years and her experiences during WW2 with interesting perceptions into the states of mind of British civilians during that time. Her own pacifism developed during these years, so that it became clear to her that the maintenance of dialogue and compassion was crucial. She also concluded that the bombing of civilians in war is criminal, deploring the bombing of Dresden, Hamburg etc by the allies. It takes courage to be a pacifist in war time and to write, as well as speak about it. I applaud Vera Brittain for her bravery and am thankful that she recorded her insights for her peers and for posterity.

[Laurel Lamperd]

I found this book again among my books when I was searching for something, stopped searching and began to read. Now I'm reading the book again which I read years ago. I love V Brittain's 'Testament' books - Testament of Friendship is a particularly poignant book about two women's friendship which ended at the death of Winifred Holtby.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are interesting things about this book, notably its account of the author's work to have a literary career -- it's hard to write a book about the act of writing books -- and the account of the home front during WWII. But ultimately I couldn't stomach it, and for reasons other than its endless repetitive name-dropping of every important person she ever met and every small American town she was ever invited to visit. Brittain was a writer and a public figure with compassion for every single oppressed person in the world except the Jews and it got ugly at points. She tearfully describes the horrors of bombed-out German cities and the suffering of its civilians but makes scant mention of the concentration camps and no mention of the death camps, except one brief recounting of a film reel showing Buchenwald in which the victims are described as gross and obscene figures of horror, not, well, victims. The only victim of the camp who gets a voice is a Polish woman who tells us they weren't so bad. Nuremburg, for Brittain, is a farce for hadn't the Nazis already suffered enough. Etc. It left a bad taste in my mouth. And then I recall how central she and her family were in the pre and post War Labour party and I say hmmm.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy TESTAMENT OF YOUTH, I just as enthusiastically recommend her WW2 memoir, TESTAMENT OF EXPERIENCE. As much as I adored T of Youth, in some ways I loved this one even more. It’s less poetic and tragically beautiful in the way of Youth, but it reflects a practical, mature grittiness appropriate to the next stage of life. She spends a lot of time talking about her journey as a professional woman who is also a wife and mother that still feels incredibly relevant today while also re-visiting her earlier dismissal of faith. And during WW2, she and her husband were courageous in their complicated and independent opinions about the war, including advocating for the protection of children in war zones, for which they were regarded with suspicion by the British political mainstream. They were ultimately vindicated in their social circles after the war when their names appeared on Hitler’s “blacklist” of those he deemed most dangerous to his cause—a true badge of honor.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this after reading Testament of Youth for A level as I really wanted to find out about the rest of her life. As someone who loves history I found both books to be an excellent personal account of the major events of the first half of the Twentieth centuary.

[Malcolm Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the present day world media, podcasts, radio, and television consumers are now used to women with strong opinions who report well on the world around them, every network, even the most right wing and reactionary of media networks, has a woman anchor/presenter who is both equal and different to her male compatriots. In the media of 90 to 100 years ago, the period of English and world history this book covers, the BBC was only in it's second decade as an organisation and the main media was print, newspapers and books. The world of the media was as male dominated as the higher education system that backed it up. High status/high achieving women were the exception.

Enter Vera Brittain, with her memoir of life during WW1, where as a high spirited young woman she lived the life that she celebrated in her first memoir 'Testament of Youth' (1933), the writing and publication of which feature in the early chapters of this third memoir 'Testament of Friendship' (1952) the book reviewed here. For anyone over 60 with a good memory for the social history of the English speaking world, like me, a world that had passed but also a world that they grew up learning, it is a great read. She drops names from the 1920's and 1930's like you would naturally know who people are and the jobs they did, names Herbert Hoover, Stanley Baldwin, and 1930's editor of 'The New Statesman', Kingsley Amis.

There is no index at the back of my edition of this book. For anyone under fifty who is reading this book, they would need some biographical footnotes for the many names that get dropped, to explain who the person mentioned was. Otherwise the younger reader would be slow to appreciate how much VB 'punched above her gender' both socially and in the left wing circles she moved in.

The last book I can remember reading about the left wing version of the 1930's was 'Fire Under The Carpet' by Sylvia Scaffardi, where how the organisation now known as Liberty, originally The Council for Civil Liberties, formed was essayed in white hot prose, with the literary names of day dropped in the prose as if everyone should know them forever. The following link is to an Amazon UK review of the book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fire-Under-C...

As Vera Brittain (born 1893) proceeds forward through the second half of the 1930's, so, by turns she writes, worries, her closest friend dies young, the world turns to war once again, she becomes the literary executor of her best friend, Winifred Holtby, more friends in the peace movement she is part of die young, she writes more, and she frets about what to do for best as a parent, peace campaigner, and working writer in the midst of a war, where the most she can do is report the damage it does to everyone's lives and properties honestly.

Her reporting of the bombing of England in WW2 makes for dispiriting reading. But dispiriting as the writing is, reports of being bombed are not as dispiriting as being bombed itself is. I would suspect that many a reader who is faced with more writing about the troubles with war war war than they can bear to read would give up on the middle section and look to pick the story up with the post-war recovery. The literary gems are fewer to be found among the heat of reporting about intense carpet bombing, but there is at least one great story that readers who skipped sections would miss. My favourite was the author's daughter, Shirley, a teenager (the future Labour politician Shirley Williams), keeping Labour minister for supplies in the wartime coalition, Herbert Morrison amused whilst everyone had to stay in the bomb shelter, in 1943/44.

One of quotations E.M. Forster is remembered for is 'Only Connect!', and connect, and keeping on connecting, is what Vera Brittain does. Even when she connects with some unexpected minority of readers across the world.

Many a reader will get a sense of exhaustion with Vera Brittain's descriptions of life after WW2, where if in theory she was right to maintain the idea of the love between enemies was right the sense of exhaustion within international relations means that there is not much energy left to restore international brotherhood and sisterhood after WW2.

to be continued.

[Louise Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The standout feature of the book, for me, was the author's questioning of the morality of the relentless Allied bombing of Europe in WW2 and her graphic descriptions of her post-war tour of Europe and USA through a) the countries which had been decimated by bombing, flooding, blockading and starvation and b) the countries which had escaped the war relatively unscathed. Beginning with Section 18 of Ch 8 'Valley of Humiliation', through Ch 9 'Dawn over Chaos' and Ch 10 'The Track of the Storm' the material is quite shocking and should be essential reading for everyone interested in history. Her points are totally relevant to Gaza in today's world, given the current US-fuelled bombing frenzy and Israel's genocidal policies there.

Her descriptions of day-to-day life as a civilian in London and England during WW2, mainly located in Ch 7 'Midnight Hour', were interesting, painting a different picture from the norm.

Her material on juggling motherhood with career was also quite interesting, but I concluded that her choices and decisions were then, and likely still are, only possible for a small minority of women, those who have access to: an obliging and apparently part-time husband with a generous and regular income; obliging friends who will step into the breech and mind your children for months at a time while you travel 'on business'; housekeepers; and the luxury of town and country houses for mini-breaks. I was rather astonished at the arrangements made for the solo travel of two early teenagers, separately, from Minnesota USA to England in 1943.

Otherwise I would have enjoyed this book more if its contents had been more tightly culled, and hadn't sounded like a reworking of the author's meticulously-kept diary as a married woman, seemingly mentioning every conversation held and letter received, and every formal meeting with everyone she knew.

[G Horton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting perspective on the interwar period, through WW2, and the start of the cold war from a prominent pacifist campaigner. A really unique view of the raising fascism across Europe, including in England, and the wartime censorship attaching her pacifist cause. Was good to hear about the campaigns objecting the obliteration bombing of civilians, trying to feed starving wartime European refugees, and the starving post-war Germans, as well as other wartime atrocities I had never heard of. The writing style was slightly challenging, she leant heavily of religious influences, and she didn't mention the holocaust which I thought odd. Well worth reading for a unique perspective on this troubling time period.

[Paul Allard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book about the period from 1925 to 1950.

Following Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain wrote this interesting and revealing history of the period following the First World War. As a committed peace campaigner, she wrote about the mistakes made that led to the Second World war and its aftermath. It's also an eye-opener about her own family life. A remarkable woman, she created an interesting social and political history with a personal touch. I took a long time to read the book, interspersing each chapter with other reading. Unfortunately there are too many parallels to the problems in the world today - lessons have not been learnt. Highly recommended.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed learning more about Vera Brittain's later life after having read Testament of Youth a couple of years ago. I couldn't follow this one quite as easily, since I wasn't familiar with a lot of her contemporaries or groups of that time period. I found myself wishing that I could talk with my Nana, who was born in her day. Also with my parents who were born in 1918 and 1920. It would have been interesting to compare their experiences with hers. I did learn a lot from this autobiography.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

[2.5]

Although I could easily have done without all the griping about the incessant difficulties caused by having children when one wants to work, and all the religious stuff, I must admit that I came to admire Vera Brittain for her steadfast commitment to promoting peace despite the costs to her reputation.

[Robyn Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was difficult to read this sequel to Testament of Youth impartially, because my father fought in WW2, yet Vera Brittain maintained a pro-peace stance throughout this war and wouldn't concede anything, despite German and Japanese atrocities.
She was extremely brave, however, and you couldn't help admiring her resolute stand in the face of severe criticism and antagonism, even from friends. She had simply decided after the First War, where her fiance and brother were killed, that she couldn't condone war, even if it meant fighting the greatest threat the world had ever known.
In my opinion, this book doesn't really match the superb narrative and emotional power of Testament of Youth, but it was fascinating to read about interesting people she met, including Peter Fraser when he visited England during the war.

[MadgeUK · Rating 3 out of 5]

The is the third of Vera Brittain's autobiographical trilogy and describes the period 1925 -1950 - from the Flapper period until immediately after WWI. As with the other two volumes, it gives great insight, from a woman's point of view, of this period of history. From 1921-1925 Brittain travelled extensively in Europe which included visits to Germany during the post-war occupation. She later lived for a year in New York with her husband, George Caitlin, who became Professor of Politics at Cornell University.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the writing style somewhat stilted. Because I was interested to read more from the author of the Testament of Youth, it was absolutely worth reading for me. She relates her life from the post WWI period when she writes her first memoir through wide travels before and after WWII. After publication of the Testament of Youth, she gains renown. Thus decades of speaking engagements stud her important first-hand accounts of England and Europe. (It may be that a biography of her would have been a less tedious source).

[Resident Optimist · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars