Letters from a Lost Generation

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

''If war spares me,'' wrote Vera Brittain to her brother Edward in 1916,''it will be my one aim to immortalize 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 fiance, 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.

Adapted by Mark Bostridge; Based on Letters from a Lost Generation, edited by Alan Bishop and Mark Bostridge Recorded at The Flying Dutchman studios; First broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in fifteen episodes, from October 19 to November 6, 1998; Directed by Clive Brill for Watchmaker Productions

Cast & Credits:
Vera Brittain: Amanda Root / Edward Brittain: Jonathan Firth / Roland Leighton: Rupert Graves / Victor Richardson: James Wallace / Geoffrey Thurlow: Robert Portal