Jennifer Worth

a memoir of birth, joy, and hard times

The midwife

Melissa M.

This book was fantastic. I realized it was a tv series upon finishing the book and was elated. I absolutely love the show as well. I enjoyed reading about a period in history I knew little about from someone in the thick of it. I saw Worth's memoir as honest and telling of the era and class from which she came and the one she was immersed in and the differences. I haven't had the chance to read the rest of the trilogy yet but am very excited to do so. I couldn't put it down!

Jonathan Tysick

Informative, well-written stories with charming characters. Heartwarming and occasionally heartbreaking, this was a fascinating look into family life in the East End of London in the 1950's.

The highest-rated drama in BBC history, Call the Midwife will delight fans of Downton Abbey Viewers everywhere have fallen in love with this candid look at post-war London. In the 1950s, twenty-two-year-old Jenny Lee leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in London's East End slums. While delivering babies all over the city, Jenny encounters a colorful cast of women—from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives, to the woman with twenty-four children who can't speak English, to the prostitutes of the city's seedier side. An unfortgettable story of motherhood, the bravery of a community, and the strength of remarkable and inspiring women, Call the Midwife is the true story behind the beloved PBS series, which will soon return for its sixth season.

A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times

Call the Midwife

Ashley J Brown

The first time I ever heard about Call the Midwife was completely by accident. I was home alone and searching Netflix for something to watch. I've always had a fascination with babies and pregnancy so I thought this is a show for me! Boy was I right. While watching the show it became my new secret guilty pleasure. Then I learned it was a book.... Even better!
Now about that... I really enjoyed the book it's so close to the show but so much more detailed and graphic.( if I do say). I did listened to the book on Audible instead of reading so while the narrator read it was hard not to think back to certain episodes or envision this whole new scenario. Each chapter had me excited since I didn't read ahead to what family or woman the chapter would follow. 
As for the audio version. The reader was PHENOMENAL! Different voices, emotion, and a genuine interest in the stories felt like a play was going on in front of me. Thinking back I really did enjoy the book and thinking ahead may have to download the others in the series. 
The only real negative I can think of is the heavy British/Cockney accents can make listening and understanding a bit difficult

Sarah Ryan

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to read the rest of the trilogy. I found it especially interesting as my own grandmother was in London during the 1950s and had my uncle there, so it lent an extra 'personal interest' to my reading. Would definitely recommend.

A fascinating slice of social history - Jennifer Worth's tales of being a midwife in 1950s London, now a major BBC TV series. Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure. But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour. She also earned the confidences of some whose lives were truly stranger, more poignant and more terrifying than could ever be recounted in fiction. Attached to an order of nuns who had been working in the slums since the 1870s, Jennifer tells the story not only of the women she treated, but also of the community of nuns (including one who was accused of stealing jewels from Hatton Garden) and the camaraderie of the midwives with whom she trained. Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving, Jennifer's stories bring to life the colourful world of the East End in the 1950s.

A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s

Call The Midwife

Helen Borham

I found this a fascinating read. I am a big fan of the TV show and the insight it has given to modern history, particularly for women. The book continued this education for me. Like the show the author balanced serious and heartbreaking stories with fun anecdotes and her memories of some extraordinary people. 

I also found the use and explanation of the Cockney dialect really interesting and really helped to bring the people and places written about to life

Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure. But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour. She also earned the confidences of some whose lives were truly stranger, more poignant and more terrifying than could ever be recounted in fiction. Attached to an order of nuns who had been working in the slums since the 1870s, Jennifer tells the story not only of the women she treated, but also of the community of nuns (including one who was accused of stealing jewels from Hatton Garden) and the camaraderie of the midwives with whom she trained. Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving, Jennifer's stories bring to life the colourful world of the East End in the 1950s.

A True Story of the East End in the 1950s

Bella Brain

Taylor Witte

Sterling Newman

zeynep 

Isabel 

Life in London's docklands in the 1950s was tough. The brothels of Cable Street, the Kray brothers and gang warfare, the meths drinkers in the bombsites-this was the world that Jennifer Worth entered when she became a midwife at the age of twenty-two. Babies were born in slum conditions, often with no running water. Jennifer Worth describes the romance and beauty of the great port of London, the bug-infested tenements, the spectre of disease, the sense of community and the incredible resilience of women who bore more than ten children. Funny, disturbing and moving, Call the Midwife brings to life a world that has now changed beyond measure.

Yasmin

A fascinating slice of social history - Jennifer Worth's tales of being a midwife in 1950s London.

The midwife a memoir of birth, joy, and hard times

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