Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End
    Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End
    Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End
    Audiobook10 hours

    Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End

    Written by Jennifer Worth

    Narrated by Nicola Barber

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Leaving a middle-class childhood to become a midwife in London#8217;s poor East End, Jennifer Worth not only delivered babies, she touched numerous lives and recounted with depth the heartrending story of a neighborhood in transition. Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End is the last book in Worth#8217;s memoir trilogy, which the Times Literary Supplement described as #8220;powerful stories with sweet charm and controlled outrage#8221; in the face of dire circumstances.Here, at last, is the full story of Chummy#8217;s delightful courtship and wedding. We also meet Megan#8217;mave, identical twins who share a browbeaten husband, and return to Sister Monica Joan, who is in top eccentric form. As in Worth#8217;s first two books, Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times and Call the Midwife: Shadows of the Workhouse, the vividly portrayed denizens of a postwar East End contend with the trials of extreme poverty-unsanitary conditions, hunger, and disease-and find surprising ways to thrive in their tightly knit community.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateFeb 4, 2014
    ISBN9781622313488
    Author

    Jennifer Worth

    Jennifer Worth trained as a nurse at the Royal Berk-shire Hospital in Reading, and was later ward sister at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in London, then the Marie Curie Hospital, also in London. Music had always been her passion, and in 1973 she left nursing in order to study music intensively, teaching piano and singing for about twenty-five years. Jennifer died in May 2011 after a short illness, leaving her husband, Philip; two daughters; and three grandchildren. Her books have all been bestsellers in England.

    Related to Call the Midwife

    Titles in the series (3)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Women's Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      My Country Childhood

      Sep 4, 2019

      AUTHOR AND FORMER executive director of the Australian Writers Guild, Angela Wales, 71, moved from Bondi in Sydney to Walcha in the Northern Tablelands of NSW when she was five years old. Angela’s father, Bob, was to take over a struggling sheep prop

      7 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      A Moving Story – My Mother’s Goodbye To Wales

      Sep 21, 2022

      I have always been sceptical about those surveys that maintain that moving house is one of the most stressful ‘life events’. Divorce, death of a loved one, being sacked – surely these catastrophes must trump a house move? (The word ‘stress’ of course

      3 min read

    • Article

      Trading Places

      Oct 5, 2022

      MY ancestral home—white columns, a veranda that stretched the width of the front, a row of rocking chairs —was knocked down. The new owners built a bigger and better house. They didn’t put the new house in the exact same spot, but ‘sited’ it in the m

      4 min read

    • Article

      Bird’s Words

      Aug 7, 2023

      The other night I had a dream that I was helping a much-respected person I knew to make a large meal for 50 Big Issue vendors and staff. Things seemed to work well. Then it went badly wrong and the well-respected person got angry and threw everything

      4 min read

    • Article

      Magical MEMORIES

      Jun 26, 2020

      Magical MEMORIES
      6 min read

    • Article

      Country-house Clawdo

      Jan 24, 2024

      Country-house Clawdo
      6 min read

    • Article

      Descent

      Jun 14, 2022

      People got out in strange ways. No stranger, I suppose, than the ways they got in. One year an American military helicopter flew too low over an Italian ski village, killing two families headed up the lift. A woman at Hillcrest had Italian citizenshi

      22 min read

    • Article

      Please Bring Rollmop Herrings, Fine For Loo Roll

      Apr 8, 2020

      NOT like you to sound panicky.’ A text from my cabaret partner pings breezily from the piste. He’s flying back for next week’s gig at the Crazy Coqs in Piccadilly. ‘They’ve reported a case of the virus in Italy. I hope we’ll get an audience.’ ‘Why wo

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Way Home

      Feb 4, 2022

      The Way Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Way Home

      Feb 5, 2022

      The Way Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of Sanctuary

      Jan 5, 2024

      In Search Of Sanctuary
      16 min read

    • Article

      RIP Old King Coal

      May 3, 2023

      I am looking down out into my north London street at the moment. It's a quiet street, mid-afternooon, and it is chocka with vans. What are they all doing? Delivering groceries, that's what. There is a Waitrose van – we have quite a few toffs in our s

      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Sep 4, 2018

      In London. England. Who knows why?Perhaps this rumpled guyFrom central casting or a page of Dickens.He’s taking ordinary usTo haunts of the illustrious,Where even dull pulse quickens. A red felt hat’s dark fingered brim,Food-spotted vest are—him.A mo

      4 min read

    • Article

      There’s No Place Like Home: An Artist Reconnects to the Whispers of Her Past

      Apr 7, 2023

      Estimated reading time: 13 minutes — I would be remiss in telling you how two suburbanites found home at our farm, ‘Oakhaven’, without first sharing our motives. There were a few. We had been watching the steady decline of the small towns we love fo

      8 min read

    • Article

      Sterner Stuff

      Feb 24, 2022

      Sterner Stuff
      5 min read

    • Article

      NEW ENGLAND By The BOOK

      Sep 10, 2021

      SHORTLY AFTER I met my wife, she told me she hoped to one day visit Emily Dickinson’s house in New England. She was working at a publishing house in Paris’s 14th Arrondissement, across the street from Montparnasse Cemetery, where some of France’s mos

      11 min read

    • Article

      Across The Whited Fields

      Oct 13, 2019

      In a twilight streeta small girl laughing. The red and yellow flowersprofuse, inhale the air. We want to hold your name,Polly, dancing in the rain Polly, skipping down the street.Sometimes the world bequeaths then takes away the one to whomou

      14 min read

    • Article

      Frost FAIR

      Jan 18, 2023

      Frost FAIR
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Upper Echelon NOCCUNDRA HOTEL

      Sep 17, 2020

      The Upper Echelon NOCCUNDRA HOTEL
      6 min read

    • Article

      My Dinner with Denis Johnson

      Jun 25, 2018

      My Dinner with Denis Johnson
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Stories Of Us

      Nov 24, 2023

      The Stories Of Us
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Call the Midwife

    4/5

    286 ratings77 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Trained nurse and midwife Jenny works with the poorest of the poor in London’s East End. This story outlines some of her adventures and her memorable patients. I became interested in this book after watching the t.v. show. I wish this book contained more information about the nurses and nun’s Jenny worked with. However, I still thought it was a highly enjoyable novel.
    • 4/5
      Can't believe what hard lives many of these people lived. Such an interesting book, chronicling the life of one Midwife in the 1950's in the East End of London. Dockworkers and their families living in tenements, woman having baby after baby. Another book that makes one glad they live in this period of time. These woman had it so hard, trying to feed their families with no indoor plumbing or water and very little money. One old lady who lived in an abandoned building actually had toenails that were 12 inches long and an inch thick, supposedly they are still part of a museum exhibit. Anyway really glad to have read this, to truly appreciate the sisters and midwives who gave these poor people medical attention, they were truly angels of mercy.
    • 5/5
      I love when non-fiction has the story quality of fiction. Worth's stories of her patients, fellow midwives, and nuns were beautifully written and made me feel like I was apart of her life. I read this book not knowing its connection to a PBS show but could picture it playing out like a movie. The variety of patients and the short story style kept the book engaging and hard to put down.
    • 4/5
      This was slow going for me. I have never watched the show so I wasn't expecting anything out of the book. I found it interesting to read about how birth was in the 1950's in England. The stories of all the different women that she meets was entertaining.One woman had given birth 25 times. It is hard to believe that. Women and infidelity and then worrying about the baby not looking like the father/husband.
    • 4/5
      This thoughtfully written memoir forms the basis for the fictionalized television series of the same name. Worth's experiences in one of London's poorest neighborhoods in the 1950s is full of laughter and tears as she describes her experiences.
    • 4/5
      Digital audiobook narrated by Nicola Barber. Originally titled: The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times. This was renamed to coincide with the popular television series. And in case you haven’t seen the TV show, the subtitle is really all the synopsis you need.Worth was a 22-year-old young woman, with no particular religious affiliation, who found herself assigned to Nonnatus House, a convent, for her training as a midwife. She got an excellent education, more practical experience than she bargained for, and an appreciation for the spiritual beliefs that helped the sisters cope with the realities of their work. Worth has been criticized for how brutally honest and graphic some of these recollections are. But I was not particularly bothered by this. She was working in an impoverished area of London, in the 1950s. Times were hard, many buildings were still in dilapidated condition following damage sustained in WW2, prostitution was rampant, and tenements were crowded. I felt that the gritty reality of her experiences added to the memoir.She also makes time to show the tenderness of a loving marriage, parents who are devoted to raising their children despite their limited resources, and friends / colleagues on whom one can rely. I think she did a good job of honestly recollecting her experiences during this time frame.The printed book includes a Appendix that addresses the difficulties of “writing the Cockney dialect” and a glossary of terms. These are not included in the audio version.Nicola Barber does a fine job narrating the audiobook. I’m sure that my devotion to the TV series helped, because I clearly pictured the scenes/actresses from the show.
    • 4/5
      An enjoyable read about life in London's docklands in the 1950s as a midwife. Some of it was in bits and pieces and I would have loved to seen more photos but overall pretty good.
    • 4/5
      I read this after falling in love with the show. It's the memoir of a midwife who served East End London during the 1950s. That a subject I never thought I'd be interested, but the stories are incredible. I will say this is one of the few examples of a book that is outshone by its film/TV counterpart. The BBC show is just wonderful!
    • 4/5
      An interesting look back to a not-so-distant time when obstetrics and maternity medicine was still in its infancy.
    • 4/5
      Loved knowing how it ends for all the characters. Thank you for sharing.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed this book. The stories Worth recounts are unbelievable at times! It's hard to imagine people living the way they did not that long ago. (the 1950's) I would recommend this book if you are at all interested in midwifery or just life in the 50's in London. I couldn't put it down.

      The only reason I didn't give it 4 stars is because there's a graphic sex scene that takes place in a "Cafe" in the chapter titled, "Mary." The book would have been just as heart-wrenching without going into as much detail in that particular scene.
    • 4/5
      This first volume in the memoir that the BBC TV series of this name is based on is a fascinating, well-told read, though the incidents relayed will be very familiar to anyone who has watched the show. The memoir is perhaps a bit more detailed, though the show certainly gets most of the particulars of life, midwifery, and 1950s medicine in. The series and the book organize material differently, and therein probably lies the biggest difference between this source material and the television produced from it: the TV series is a story with a social conscience revolving around characters while the memoir is anecdotal social history less concerned with "what will happen next." In particular, it focuses less on the personal lives of the midwives. I suspect reading the book(s) first and then watching the show would be the more rewarding activity rather than watching and then reading (the show feels a bit like it fleshes out and invitalizes what is already on the page), but the book still has much to offer if one's already watched. Worth tells the stories compellingly, explains things well, and is particularly good at demonstrating how naive or misguided her younger self was without sounding dismissive or self-deprecatory. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      Call the Midwife first came to my attention when I heard PBS was going to air the BBC series. I wasn’t sure if I’d be interested in a show about midwives in the 1950’s and close friends kept raving about it. I didn’t get around to watching the adaptation until New Year’s Eve and was quite surprised at how much I fell in love with the show. Shortly afterwards I borrowed the book from my local library branch.Jennifer Worth is an engaging storyteller. She decided to write about her experiences in response to an article in the Royal College of Midwives Journal by Terri Coates regarding the underrepresentation of midwives in literature. Coates urged, “a midwife somewhere to do for midwifery what James Herriot did for vets.” Worth took up the challenge and eventually sent her first volume to Coates to read. She writes, “Whoever heard of a midwife as a literary heroine? Yet midwifery is the very stuff of drama. Every child is conceived either in love or lust, is born in pain, followed by joy or sometimes remorse. A midwife is in the thick of it, she sees it all. Why then does she remain a shadowy figure, hidden behind the delivery room door?”Some do question how much of Worth’s memoir can be accepted as truth. There are several reasons for this. It’s important to note that Worth did change names and perhaps she did it to protect her patients and her friends (although she keeps her real name and uses her maiden name: Jenny Lee). Nonnatus House is where she works as a district nurse and midwife is a pseudonym for the Sisters of St John the Divine in Whitechapel (Worth’s setting is in Poplar in the East End of London). Questions also arise regarding the identity of a midwife and if she actually existed. Worth describes Camilla “Chummy” Cholomondley-Browne as “Six foot two inches tall, with shoulders like a front-row forward and size eleven feet, her parents had spent a fortune trying to make her more feminine, but to no effect.” She said her first impression of her was a “bloke in drag.” Worth’s daughters, however; insist they once saw a photograph of the midwives taken during their mother’s tenure and a woman seen in the photograph fits Chummy’s description, but no Sister of St John’s can recall a midwife with her description or name. Furthermore, no one knows who has this photograph because it has disappeared. Then there’s the story of Sister Evangelina who Worth describes as a nurse who parachuted into German territory during the First World War. Critics are quick to point out the story regarding Sister Evangelina is invented. I wouldn’t necessarily discount what Worth writes as untrue. By World War II parachute schools were being established and I believe France was the first to create a woman’s airborne unit. Perhaps Worth heard about this and by the time she wrote her memoir it was part of her memory as having happened.For the women who have had children, I salute you. Reading Call the Midwife certainly put things into perspective and her descriptions of living situations in 1950’s East End London sure make you appreciate our present day living. Worth describes in rich detail, midwives getting a call in the middle night and having to use a bicycle to attend patients. Imagine having to travel up 12 miles per a day carrying a bulky (and no doubt heavy) medical box and traveling everywhere via your bike. It’s interesting to see how much the medical field has changed these past 60 years. Worth mentions how much changed with the introduction of the pill, “Women could, for the first time in history, be like men, and enjoy sex for its own sake. In the late 1950s we had eighty to a hundred deliveries a month on our books. In 1963 the number had dropped to four or five a month. Now that is some social change!” I reread this section a few times and had to contemplate for a moment. I wonder what the Sisters thought of the pill? How was it viewed among the poor in the East End? As a woman living in the 21st century we take a lot for granted. As Worth explains, “In the nineteenth century (and earlier, of course) no poor woman could afford to pay the fee required by a doctor for the delivery of her baby. So she was forced to rely on the services of an untrained, self-taught midwife, or “handywoman” as they were often called. Some may have been quite effective practitioners, but others boasted a frightening mortality rate. In the mid-nineteenth century, maternal mortality amongst the poorest classes stood at around 35-40 per cent, and infant mortality was around 60 per cent. Anything like eclampsia, haemorrhage, or mal-presentation, would mean the inevitable death of the mother. Sometimes these these handywomen would abandon a patient to agony and death if any abnormality developed during labour. There is no doubt that their working practices were insanitary, to say the least, and thereby spread infection, disease and often death.” It definitely makes one appreciate the steps taken to pass England’s Midwives Act, which of course lead to the Royal College of Midwives being created.No medical knowledge is needed to fully appreciate Worth’s book. She’s very thorough and explains everything; clearly she made it her mission to pay attention to detail. Also she uses the Cockney dialect throughout the book to showcase how the people in the East End talked, but it’s easy to read. There’s a guide to the Cockney dialect and even goes into detail regarding the difficulty to put a dialect into print. Furthermore, there is a detailed glossary, which further explains the medical terminology used.If you’re a fan of medical shows or are just interested in medical history, I highly recommend Call the Midwife. For everyone else, I do believe you’d enjoy reading this lovely memoir. If you’re wondering how much is changed between the book and the series, I have to say not much. A lot of the patients she mentions feature prominently in the series, however; the book provides much more in-depth information. You’ll be left wanting more and luckily there are three volumes to her memoir.
    • 3/5
      Well done audiobook with stories set in the 50s around life as a midwife in the East End of London amongst the poorest of the poor. Life was incredibly hard the assistance given by the midwives was invaluable in preserving lives and giving women safer pregnancies. A long gone time. Some of the stories were very touching.
      3.5 stars.
    • 5/5
      A truly fascinating biography that hooked me right away. The stories are heartbreaking, funny and completely eye opening about giving birth in the east end of London during the 50s and 60s. Jennifer is candid and honest about the conditions she worked in, the poverty and abuse she saw. But also the beauty she found in the simple joys of people who did not have much. Some of the stories are quite funny and others so painful to read, you will find tears running down your eyes. You will fall in love with the nuns she worked with and her patients. You will also learn so much and truly be grateful (and somewhat saddened strangely enough) by the changes in medical practices dealing with childbirth (Done it twice myself, and holy hell thank you I cannot imagine what would have happened to Jacob if I had giving birth during that era) I really enjoyed the story about Princess Diana's bodyguard and also the one about the husband who accepted another mans child as his own. I will be picking up the other books by her before I sit down to watch the series.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. Ms. Worth's writing is very effective in relating post-WWII society of East London and bringing the reader directly into the story. I was unaware of the abject poverty in post-WWII England in the 1950's (no doubt to be found as well in the U.S. at that time) and would have liked to think that social policies were more progressive in fairly recent history. This book has made me aware of my naivete. These women were so truly and thoroughly dedicated to their service. I'm glad someone has told their story.
    • 5/5
      I loved this memoir into the life of midwife Jenny Lee. She writes with poignant and in depth detail of her cases and her personal life. This book will move you, have you laughing, have you astonished, and at times near tears. I can't wait to read the next book.
    • 5/5
      One of the best series I have ever read
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book - it was a tremendous memoir. I loved the characters (the actors in the TV series were very well matched). I loved reading about the history of the convent and the sisters and about the East End of London in the 1950s. My dad was born in Stepney so must have lived in these atrocious conditions. My heart goes out to all of those poor women who had to live in such abject poverty.Back Cover Blurb:At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Worth leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in post war London's East End slums. The colourful characters she meets while delivering bables all over the East End of London - from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives, to the woman with twenty-four children who can't speak English, to the prositutes and dockers of the city's seedier side - illuminates a fascinating time in history. Beautifully written and utterly moving, Call the Midwife will touch the hearts of anyone who is, and everyone who has, a mother.
    • 4/5
      Would absolutely recommend this book - as long as you aren't squeamish about OB/GYN procedures and birth! Keeping in mind this is non-fiction, and the author is not a "writer" but rather an older woman sharing the amazing stories of her life - this is very enjoyable. My only issues were that the story jumps around a bit and doesn't really flow - but again, she isn't a "writer" by trade and so all is forgiven. Very interesting read - I loved the people she knew and helped, and I loved the way she compared life then, with life now to remind us how very much living standards and technology have changed since the 1950's.
    • 3/5
      While reading it, I felt it as a sort of a testament of youth. Worth describes her admiration of the professional worth of the nuns in midwifery. She starts her training with them in 1953, when she is 22. As assistent to a trained widwife, she assists at the births at home. She describes the community of the London Docklands. With the men working in the docks and the women at home raising large families in very bad housing conditions. In the way they coped, you can call it every day heroism. It is a personal story, and as such not the work of an historian. But you can get a good idea about the living conditions in this area in this period so short after the war.
    • 4/5
      I’m a big fan of Call the Midwife on PBS and this book is the memoir on which it is based. Although most of the stories in it were familiar because of the television shows, they did offer insight that a television show can’t. My favorite series character is Chummy and her background is fleshed out quite nicely in the book. Ms.Worth’s writing is straightforward. She does not sugarcoat the difficult lives many of her patients lived in post-war London. She spends a great deal of time with two of the most poignant stories from the series: Mary the single, pregnant girl from Ireland who is forced to give up her child; and Conchita, the mother of 25 children, including a premature baby. Call the Midwife is a quick and satisfying read and should be of interest to fans of the series.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating memoirs of a 1950s midwife. Heartwarming characters, as well as discussion of medical techniques, this is a page turner from start to finish. My only criticism is that it wasn't longer!
    • 5/5
      Call the Midwife is the story of a young nurse who learns midwifery from nuns in the slums of 1950s London. She lives at a convent dedicated to nursing the community and delivering babies of the area neighborhoods. She tells of her relationship with the nuns and how their faith affects her own life and beliefs. She describes some of the other nurses with whom she lives and comes to know as friends. And she portrays the people who live in this poverty-stricken area of London, how they live, love, suffer, and prosper. She gives many accounts of the deliveries that she is involved in and sometimes goes into quite a bit of detail! But it just shows the high expectations of the people regarding midwives at that time, and of the high esteem in which they were held. I thought this book was extraordinary and also liked that the author told some of the history of the area, of how the people lived and why, even getting into the issues of prostitution and workhouses. An amazing read!
    • 4/5
      I would give the writing style of this book a 3 star, but I found the stories very interesting and unusual. There is a lot of "hard times" in it, but much goodness and joy as well. There is heroism as well as evil in what appears to have been everyday life among the poor. It struck me that this was at a time when I was about 4 years old. It was hard to see this as the same period of time that I was living in. I learned a lot from this book.
    • 2/5
      Oh how I had to struggle to finish this book. I somehow had the idea that it would be like James Herriot's books, as in All Creatures Great and Small. Not Even A Little. Angela's Ashes? Oh ha, not close. Overall, it was a grim read without much redemption.There were parts of the book that I found engaging, probably because of my own work as an RN in labor & delivery. Then there was my favorite character, Chummy, who unfortunately appeared in only one chapter. However, there were some real spoiler chapters in the book, particularly where Worth chose to write (three chapters!) about a prostitute she had met on her rounds. If her book had been about prostitution, I suppose she would have been justified; however, I felt blindsided after reading those chapters and wished that I had skipped them. I also could have done without about 90% of the bathroom "humor" that was written into this thing.Probably the most interesting part of the book was the community of the London Docklands as they existed in the 1950s. Worth's book left me wishing she had been able to incorporate more about the area into the book. I imagine a book like London's Docklands by Fiona Rule would cover the subject better. I think my basic problem with the book could be summed up pretty simply: Worth isn't much of a storyteller. This book seems like a real missed opportunity.
    • 4/5
      As a man my experience with birth is limited to say the least. I have participated to the extent any father can in the births of all three of my children, but still was only an observer. Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth is a new perspective for the casual observer, enhancing the meaning, significance and understanding of the birth of our children.For the adolescent male mind, a part of every man regardless of his age, birth combines mystery, naughty bits, gross stuff, and joyful tears that leave us confused and often incapable of expressing the emotions that each aspect create. We don’t know whether to say cool, or gross, or to simply claim that allergies are behind our glistening eyes. Should we cowboy up, or do our best Mike Farrell impersonation? Mrs. Worth uses clear, concise, and stark medical terminology to describe the rape and sexual abuse that created some of the babies she delivered, and in doing so makes the horror all forms of sexual abuse more tangible and disgusting. This is balanced against the steadfast love between many of the husbands and wives she serves, the nuns and midwives who live with them, and most importantly the love God has for mankind.There were a couple of surprises for me in reading Mrs. Worth’s tale. I didn’t realize that even as late as the 1950’s indoor plumbing was not available to many East End Londoners, or the magnitude of the impact German bombing had on housing. The final surprise was the final delivery Mrs. Worth narrates, which was her faith in God. Even in the midst of the poverty, cruelty, injustice that so often reeked havoc in the lives of those she worked with, Mrs. Worth found love. And where there is love, there too is God.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoy this series on PBS and thought it would be fun to read the book it was based on. First, I was amazed at how well the series was cast. Almost every character from the series was completely recognizable in the books. (including my favorite - Chummy). So Kudos to the casting director!I enjoyed all the stories and while some were familiar - it had been long enough since I had watched the first season that I didn't remember all the details of the stories. It was a bit slow slow for me - especially after the half way mark. But a good read overall - if not a page-turner.
    • 5/5
      Fabulous account of life as a midwife in Londons east end in the 1960's. Brutally honest if not shocking although I think as a society we could benefit from returning to some of the old ways. I could not put the book down and it inspired me to read more on the subject. I also enjoyed the tv series of the book.
    • 5/5
      Call the Midwife is the outstanding, wonderful, sensitive, sad and funny memoir of Jennifer Worth's years working as a nurse midwife in London's dock area in the 50's. Jennifer lived in an Anglican convent at the time; meeting many of the nicest people. Much more than just stories of childbirths, Worth provides historical, medical and social backgrounds of the times giving the reader a much better understanding of her experiences. She describes the spirit-killing, horrendous conditions of the workhouse, the dismal life of prostitutes, and the prevalence of domestic abuse. But she accentuates the positive, sweet goodness of the poor and middle-class residents of the area. This book is a gift to be treasured, read, re-read and shared.