CALL THE MIDWIFE

AUTHOR: JENNIFER WORTH

PUBLISHER: WEIDERFELD & NICOLSON 2007


Jennifer Worth worked as a nurse in Reading. She later moved to London and trained as a midwife. She joined an order of nuns, the Midwives of St. Raymond Nonnatus, who had been working in the slums of the Docklands in the East End of London since the 1870’s.

Her work took her to the bug-infested tenements and the poverty and deprivation was beyond measure. She writes about the women she treated and the close community of the nuns. Despite this the cockney people, who survived the war, showed a side of life, a true sense of community with their extended families, warm, funny and bawdy humour.

Sadly it was reported that she died this year at the age of 75.

I found this book to be emotional, disturbing, funny and incredibly enlightening of a bygone age. I would recommend this book.

Rating: 5*

Jean Lyons