This week I was brainstorming a story set in, or just after, WWI and located in England. I needed visual reference cues, and I racked my brain and came up with two old television series that I remembered seeing: ‘Testament of Youth’ and ‘A Horseman Riding By’.
The cost of getting them on DVD was scary [we don’t have Netflix] and then I thought ‘they’re old, maybe the library has them?’
Bingo. It had both. And both were available to borrow. Woohoo.
Note to self: Horseman is set in the Boer War and starts in 1902.
Later kid 3 asked if I wanted to watch a movie with her. Sure. Which one? Idk, she says.
Ooh, I suggest either of the library options and she’s amenable so I ask her to pick one of the two. She picks Testament.
And then I had that moment of panic.
Would my teen memories be accurate? I saw it in 1979. I was all of fifteen and I adored both the book and the series. I wrote out quotes from the book in calligraphy. Seriously, my paperback copy is lovingly broken-spined, yellow paged, and falling apart. I thought Vera Brittain was the most amazing thing I had ever read or seen. Teen Me thought she was fabulous.
But we sat down to watch.
And then a minor miracle happened. The show was great. The acting was incredible. The sets were a little obvious, and some of the filming was a little dated, (honestly, some scenes they clearly only had one camera) but it was brilliant.
We both sat there, sobbing like tragics, and passing the tissue box between us as we shared Vera’s life.
And guess what? She adored Roland as much I ever did.
Score one for you, Vera.
