Because You Died: Poetry and Prose of the First World War and Beyond

Bringing together a selection of Vera Brittain’s poetry and prose, some of it never published before, this collection commemorates the men she loved—fiancé, brother, and two close friends—who served and died in World War I. It draws on her experiences as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in London, Malta, and France, and illustrates her growing conviction of the wickedness of all war. Illustrated with many extraordinary photographs from Brittain’s own albums, and edited with a new introduction by Mark Bostridge, this is an elegy to men who lost their lives in a bloody conflict.

Vera Brittain (1893–1970) is a controversial writer, pacifist, and feminist best known as the author of Testament of Youth. Mark Bostridge coauthored Vera Brittain: A Life and edited Letters From A Lost Generation: First World War Letters of Vera Brittain and Four Friends.