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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
I also feel like we skim over the effects of WW2 in History classes so I loved this book. Although it is mainly about the effects of the workhouses (another thing we never learn), it also showed how the war had affected people.
It was fun to see the East End through a nurse's eyes because she was tuned to see the filth that these people lived in. I feel like if it was anyone else we wouldn't have got such an in-depth look at this world.
I can't wait for Call the Midwife to come back at Christmas!
It was fun to see the East End through a nurse's eyes because she was tuned to see the filth that these people lived in. I feel like if it was anyone else we wouldn't have got such an in-depth look at this world.
I can't wait for Call the Midwife to come back at Christmas!
Another fantastic book. I learned a lot about early 1900s London and the Boer war and WWI.
Like a lot of other people, I really enjoy the TV series Call the Midwife. I also enjoyed the first book by Jennifer Worth – strangely enough, called Call the Midwife. After the second season of the show ended, I was eager for more tales of Jenny, Cynthia, Chummy, Trixie and the nuns.
The book is somewhat different to what I expected - I was looking for more nursing tales, but instead, this book focuses on several people that Jennifer met while she was in Poplar. There are still some good times with the other midwives, but this book belongs to Frank and Peggy, Jane, Sister Monica Joan and Joe Collett. The majority of these stories have also been played out on the show. This didn’t dent my enthusiasm; in fact it was rather nice to have the stories in both written and visual form.
Sister Monica Joan is a comical character in the book and I thoroughly enjoyed Jenny’s story of how she was caught shoplifting and what the nuns did for her. Joe’s story, full of hardship and life in the tenements, was a tearjerker. But the story of Frank, Peggy and Jane was truly heartbreaking. I don’t think I’ve ever read an account of the workhouse so bare, brutal and shocking.
Despite the hardships of these people, the book is a sound read as Jennifer brings to life 1950s London. I only wish there had been a bit more of ‘midwife’ action – births, camaraderie and friendships. However, I do have the television show for that!
I will be continuing to read Jennifer’s next book, Farewell to the East End, for another dose of all things Poplar.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
The book is somewhat different to what I expected - I was looking for more nursing tales, but instead, this book focuses on several people that Jennifer met while she was in Poplar. There are still some good times with the other midwives, but this book belongs to Frank and Peggy, Jane, Sister Monica Joan and Joe Collett. The majority of these stories have also been played out on the show. This didn’t dent my enthusiasm; in fact it was rather nice to have the stories in both written and visual form.
Sister Monica Joan is a comical character in the book and I thoroughly enjoyed Jenny’s story of how she was caught shoplifting and what the nuns did for her. Joe’s story, full of hardship and life in the tenements, was a tearjerker. But the story of Frank, Peggy and Jane was truly heartbreaking. I don’t think I’ve ever read an account of the workhouse so bare, brutal and shocking.
Despite the hardships of these people, the book is a sound read as Jennifer brings to life 1950s London. I only wish there had been a bit more of ‘midwife’ action – births, camaraderie and friendships. However, I do have the television show for that!
I will be continuing to read Jennifer’s next book, Farewell to the East End, for another dose of all things Poplar.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
So sad. So different from call the midwife but still good. So good. And I am so curious as to how she know such details of other people’s lives and I would be interested to read more about the author.
Very well-written novel, the stories of patients and mothers are combined with historical information to explain the background of certain aspects of the period. Definitely a good read.
In her second book, Worth focuses on just a few stories- that don't really have anything to do with her experiences as a midwife- and that slowed the book down a bit for me.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, though at times it was quite sad. Jennifer Worth is an excellent writer and storyteller, and she treats the people she encountered in her nursing career with refreshing compassion and lack of judgement. This volume focused on the adults Nurse Jenny Lee encounters in her time with the Sisters and the lasting effects of life in the workhouse and surviving two world wars.
It’s so crazy to me that I had never heard of a workhouse before this book. It’s unimaginable what people had to go through! This book had me tearing up in one chapter and smiling at the sweet love portrayed in the next. SO GOOD!! I’m going to finish this trilogy. On to the next one!
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Incest, Terminal illness, Medical content
Minor: Pedophilia
Call the Midwife is still one of my top five favorite television series of all time. I was a bit hesitant to read the original memoir because I thought it might reveal too many differences between the true-life story with what is shown on television. While the television series has gone past the original trilogy of true-life stories by Jennifer Worth, the episodes have remained compelling.
Probably the largest difference in the books is the greater amount of detail Ms. Worth shares about the pockets of depravity in post-war London's poverty -riddled East End. In my opinion, PBS sketches the realities with a soft touch and that serves the viewer well. In her writing, Worth describes in more harsh detail the prostitution, workhouses, abuse and crime she saw first-hand bicycling her way among the labyrinth of over-populated, under-resourced tenements. It was good for me to know these realities because I don't want to be too fragile to know the truth about poverty, misplaced bureaucracy, and human suffering. But I wouldn't have been able to watch it on television. (I should mention that both the books and the program contain depictions that could trigger stress for those who've experienced trauma -- especially pregnancy-related suffering.)
More importantly, knowing better the jagged details sharpened my appreciation for the nun-midwives and district nurses of Nonnatus House. Their gracious, dogged determination to be the hands and feet of their Savior to the suffering women and children (all people, actually) in the heart of a mid-twentieth century Dickensian world teaches me, incarnational love, just as it drew Jennifer Worth (nurse Jenny Lee in the program) to the Gospel.
Probably the largest difference in the books is the greater amount of detail Ms. Worth shares about the pockets of depravity in post-war London's poverty -riddled East End. In my opinion, PBS sketches the realities with a soft touch and that serves the viewer well. In her writing, Worth describes in more harsh detail the prostitution, workhouses, abuse and crime she saw first-hand bicycling her way among the labyrinth of over-populated, under-resourced tenements. It was good for me to know these realities because I don't want to be too fragile to know the truth about poverty, misplaced bureaucracy, and human suffering. But I wouldn't have been able to watch it on television. (I should mention that both the books and the program contain depictions that could trigger stress for those who've experienced trauma -- especially pregnancy-related suffering.)
More importantly, knowing better the jagged details sharpened my appreciation for the nun-midwives and district nurses of Nonnatus House. Their gracious, dogged determination to be the hands and feet of their Savior to the suffering women and children (all people, actually) in the heart of a mid-twentieth century Dickensian world teaches me, incarnational love, just as it drew Jennifer Worth (nurse Jenny Lee in the program) to the Gospel.