A review by wellingtonestatelibrary
The Midwife's Tale by Sam Thomas

3.0

I really enjoyed this book. The author's writing style reminded me of Mel Starr, who is extremely engaging as a medieval mystery novelist. I found the concept of "pleading the belly" intriguing. I think that Sam Thomas' book could have been improved by including a glossary. It was only through reading Mel Starr's books (he includes a glossary with definitions of medieval English terms) that I was familiar with the term gossip as pertains to labour and delivery. The origin is "god sib", a spiritual sister who attended a woman in labour to, essentially, distract her by speaking of current events and spiritually uplifting and encouraging her. Sam Thomas would have done well to explain this.