This is a biographical study of the English writer and social activist Vera Brittain, author of Testament of Youth .

Deborah Gorham was born in New York, but has lived for many years in Ottawa, Canada, where she is Professor of History at Carleton University and Director of the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's Studies. She has published numerous articles and books on British and Canadian women's history, including The Victorian Girl and the Feminine Ideal (1982), Up and Doing: Canadian Women and Peace (1990), co-edited with Janice Williamson, and Caring and Curing: Historical Perspectives on Women and Healing in Canada (1994), co-edited with Dianne Dodd.