Testament of Youth is the first installment, covering 1913–1925, in the autobiography of Vera Brittain. It was published in 1933. Brittain's autobiography continues with Testament of Experience, published in 1957, and encompassing 1925–1950. Between these two books comes Testament of Friendship (published in 1940), which, while also autobiographical, is essentially a biography of Brittain's close colleague and friend, Winifred Holtby.
The narrative begins with Vera's plans to enter the University of Oxford and her romance with Roland Leighton, a friend of her brother Edward. Both were commissioned as officers early in World War I, and both were subsequently killed, as were several other members of their social circle.
The book's main subject is Vera's work as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in war-torn Europe. It also describes how she returned, disillusioned, to Oxford after the war, and concludes with her meeting her husband for the first time.
The book was the subject of a highly successful dramatisation on BBC2 in 1979, starring Cheryl Campbell as Vera Brittain.
