Testament of Youth
On sale
22nd January 2026
Price: £14.99
Genre
‘Remains one of the most powerful and widely read war memoirs of all time’ GUARDIAN
‘Vera Brittain’s heart-rending account of the way her generation’s lives changed is still as shocking and moving as ever’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
‘A heartbreaking account of the impact of the First World War on a stout-hearted, high-minded young woman’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘Should be compulsive reading’ DAILY MAIL
What you have striven for will not end in nothing, all that you have done and been will not be wasted, for it will be a part of me as long as I live, and I shall remember, always.
In 1914 Vera Brittain was twenty, and as war was declared she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life – and the lives of a whole generation – had been unimaginably changed.
One of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, this is her account of how she survived the period; how she lost the man she loved; how she nursed the wounded; and how she emerged into an altered world to become one of the best-loved writers of her time.
‘Vera Brittain’s heart-rending account of the way her generation’s lives changed is still as shocking and moving as ever’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
‘A heartbreaking account of the impact of the First World War on a stout-hearted, high-minded young woman’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘Should be compulsive reading’ DAILY MAIL
What you have striven for will not end in nothing, all that you have done and been will not be wasted, for it will be a part of me as long as I live, and I shall remember, always.
In 1914 Vera Brittain was twenty, and as war was declared she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life – and the lives of a whole generation – had been unimaginably changed.
One of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, this is her account of how she survived the period; how she lost the man she loved; how she nursed the wounded; and how she emerged into an altered world to become one of the best-loved writers of her time.
Reviews
A heartbreaking account of the impact of the First World War on a stout-hearted, high-minded young woman
Essential reading, not just as an anti-war polemic but as a portrait of a whole generation of young people who were totally ill-prepared and whose lives were utterly changed within four momentous years
Its raw emotional truth populated my understanding of history with real human beings
Remains one of the most powerful and widely read war memoirs of all time
Sublimely moving . . . this is a truly great book . . . should be compulsory reading for the nation's debauched and aimless yobs and yobettes
Like the much-misunderstood poppy, Testament both memorializes and warns ... to remain uninformed is actually life-threatening
Vera Brittain's heart-rending account of the way her generation's lives changed is still as shocking and moving as ever
