Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

This memoir was first published in 1933 after Brittain was already an established author.  Based on her extensive diaries, she shares her experiences and observations of life during WWI.  As a member of the England's rising middle class, she looked forward to her years at Oxford.  She adored her older brother and his lively, intelligent group of friends, one of whom became her fiance. The war took it all away.  She left the university to serve as a nurse in the war where she contemplates the futility of it all on one hand and the idea of heroism on the other. Following the war, she rebuilds her life as a student, an author, a feminist, a pacifist and a speaker for the League of Nations.  She struggles with the notion that moving forward might make less of the people and memories left behind.  It has remained in print all these years because readers consider it the best window into the life of that generation - particularly the women - and what was lost by the war.  There a little bit more about the British educational system (begin on page 164 to skip the details) then I needed but interesting otherwise.  I haven't seen the movie but I fear a romanticized version of what was really a desperate time.