Letters from a Lost Generation

First World War letters of Vera Brittain and four friends

By: Mark Bostridge, Alan Bishop

Narrated by: Amanda Root, Jonathan Firth, Full Cast

A selection of the powerful and poignant wartime letters of Vera Brittain and her friends.

"If war spares me," wrote Vera Brittain to her brother, Edward, in 1916, "it will be my one aim to immortalise in a book the story of us four." Seventeen years later, Vera was to achieve her aim with the acclaimed Testament of Youth.

This series of letters was the inspiration behind Testament. Written between Vera; her brother; her fiancé, Roland Leighton; and their two best friends, Victor Richardson and Geoffrey Thurlow, they give a unique perspective on the most horrifying conflict the world has ever seen. They show the heartbreaking disillusionment of an idealistic public-school generation, raised on ideas of patriotism and duty, as the reality of war emerged. Yet they also give a fascinating insight into the era as a whole: their generation’s literary tastes and the place of women in society.

Read by Amanda Root, Jonathan Firth, Rupert Graves, James Wallace, and Robert Portal, and first heard on BBC Radio 4, these deeply moving letters let us hear for ourselves the voices of Vera Brittain’s lost generation.

©2014 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2014 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Never Forget

If you could sum up Letters from a Lost Generation in three words, what would they be?

Gone too young.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Letters from a Lost Generation?

Each time Vera received a telegram you could just feel the pain.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

I thought all the performances were wonderful. I especially enjoyed Jonathan Firth as Edward Brittain. He did a lovely job capturing the journey from idealism to fatalism.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Only their words were left behind.

Abridged versions never work.

Fantastic story, but they cut out half the book. ONLY downside. Apart from that, amazing.

Quality issues, the story was probably good

While nice to hear a throwback to an earlier time, the effort to localize it made it somewhat distracting, and the quality was low.