Author:
Jennifer Worth
Title:
Call The Midwife
Genre:
History, Cultural History, London, Biography, Historical, Social &
Urban History, nonfiction, autobiography, memoir, biography memoir,
Where
I Got This Book: I was given this book.
Book Dedication: This book is dedicated to Philip, my dear husband. The
history of 'Mary' is also dedicated to the memory of father Joseph Williamson and Daphne Jones.
This
book has 340 pages and 44 chapters in it.
I
would tell people that you should step outside your comfort zone with
books because it is good to add more authors and genres to your
reading portfolio. Even if you do not read books like this,
I
normally read books of this genre but l also stepped outside my
comfort zone with authors and genres l am so glad l did because l
have read so many great books and come across some great authors.
I
highly recommend this book.
Synopsis:
The brothels of cable street. The krays brothers and gang warfare,
The meth drinkers in the bombsites – this was the world Jennifer worth entered when she become a midwife at the age of twenty-two.
Babies were born in slum conditions often with no running water.
Jennifer worth describes the romantic and beauty of the great port of London, The bug-infested tenements. The spectre of disease. The sense
of community and the incredible of women who bore more then ten
children. Funny, disturbing and moving. Call the midwife brings to
life a world that has now changed beyond measure. Nonnatus house was
situated in the heart of the London dock-lands. The practice covered
stepney, lime house, mill wall, the isle of dogs, cubit town, poplar,
bow, mile end and whitechapel. The area was densely populated and
most families had lived there for generations, often not moving more
than a street or two away from their birthplace. Family life was
lived at close quarters and children were brought up be a widely
extended family of aunts, grandparents, cousins and older siblings,
all living within a few houses, or at the most, streets of each
other. Children would run in and out of each other's homes all the
time and when l lived and worked there, l can not remember a door
being locked, except at night. Children were everywhere, and the
streets were their play-grounds. In the 1950's there were no cars in
the back streets, because no one had a car, so it was perfectly safe
to play there. There was heavy industrial traffic on the main roads,
particularly those leading to and from the dorks, but the little
streets were traffic-free. The bomb sites were the adventure
playgrounds. They were numerous, a terrible reminder of the war and
the intense bombing of the docklands only ten years before. Great
chunks had been cut out the terraces, each encompassing perhaps two
or three streets. The area would be roughly boarded off, partly
hiding wasteland of rubble with bits of building half standing, half
fallen. Perhaps notice stating danger – keep out would be nailed up
somewhere, but this was like a red rag to a bull to any lively lad
over the age of about six of seven, and every bomb site had a secret
entries where the boarding was carefully removed, allowing a small
body to squeeze through. Officially no on was allowed in, but
everyone, including the police, seemed to turn a blind eye. It was
undoubtedly a rough area. Knifing was common, Street fight was common and if a young girl did become pregnant the pressure on the
young man to marry her was so great that few resisted.
Review:
I found this book really easy to get In to and hard to put down once
l started to read it. I was hooked on this book after reading the
first page l can not wait to read the other books in this series. I
am glad this book was made in to a TV series and I have watched the
series over and over again and l could happily read this book again
and again. I loved reading this book and reading about how it was in
the 1950's and how the people survived in them days and who helped
women bring their babies in to the world some women bore about ten or
more babies because there was no birthcontrol in them days and if you
aborted a baby you could end up in prison. The midwives also helped
when people was injured or they had bedsores or they had preeclampsia
and eclampsia and they catch it too late and the mother and baby
sadly passed away and the nuns sometimes attend births and deaths to
help the midwife. I am hoping they put call the midwife on at
christmas again. I am glad l got all the call the midwife books l am
glad l can read all the books one after another. I love reading about
olden days and how things have changed over the years. I am sad that
when a baby passes away they share coffins with adults who have
passed away if the families can not afford a coffin of their own. It
was so hard to read that mother and their children would go in to the
workhouse when their husband left them or passed away and sometimes
none of the children made it out alive and the workhouse inmates was
buried all together in unmarked graves.
About
The Author: Worth, born Jennifer lee while her parents were on
holiday in clacton-on-sea, Essex, was raised in amersham, buckinghamshire. After leaving school at the age of 14, she learned
shorthand and typing and became the secretary to the head of Dr
Challoner's grammar school. She then trained as a nurse at the royal Berkshire hospital, reading, and moved to London to receive training
to become a midwife. Lee was hired as a staff nurse at the London hospital in whitechapel in the early 1950's. With the sisters of st London college of music. Where she taught piano and singing. She
obtained a fellowship in 1984. She performed as a soloist and with
choirs throughout worth reflects on her later experiences caring for
the terminally ill. Worth was highly critical of mike Leigh's 2004
film Vera drake, for depicting the consequences of illegal abortions
unrealistically. She argued that the method shown in the movie, far
from being fairly quick and painless, was in fact almost invariably
fatal to the mother. Worth died on 31 may 2011, having been diagnosed
with cancer of the oesophagus earlier in the year. Jennifer worth is
a great writer l have her other books and sadly she has passed away
now which l was sad to read.
About
the book: l Like that the cover is really nice and not too bright and
l love the font.
Star
Rating: 5 Out Of 5 Stars
I
wish l could rate this book more than five stars because it is worth
more then the five stars l rated it.
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