One Woman poet and her attitude towards war
...merville College, Oxford. In 1914, Vera met and fell in love with Roland Leighton, a friend of her only brother, Edward. On the outbreak of WW1, both men left to join the British Army. Vera wanted to play a part in the war effort too, and left Somerville College to work as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse in England, France and Malta. She looked after the injured and dying, traveled alone and interacted with all sorts of social classes. The War caused the loss of not only her fiancé in 1915 but also the losses of her brother, and two close friends, Geoffrey Thurlow and Victor Nicholson, in 1918. Brittain was moved to the verge of a nervous breakdown by her experiences in the war, witnessing at firsthand the consequences of modern combat as a nurse. Brittain’s first two novels, “The Dark Tide” and “Not Without Honour” sold badly. She also published two books on the role of women in society, “Women’s Work in Modern Britain” and “Halcyon or the Future of Monogamy”. Brittain wrote her “Testament of Youth” to demonstrate the effect of war on her generation. It illustrates the changes in her wealthy background that the war brought about. She also writes about her struggle for education and her experiences as a n...