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Call The Midwife Boxed Set: Call The Midwife, Shadows Of The Workhouse, Farewell To The East End (2012)

by Jennifer Worth(Favorite Author)

4.38 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1780224842 (ISBN13: 9781780224848)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Orion Publishing Group

review 1: 'Call the Midwife' is a fascinating and eye-opening encounter with the joys and deep sorrows, the stark and heart-breaking realities, and the miracles of birth and life, that were encountered by Jennifer Worth and her colleagues in one of the toughest, most thriving London districts of the '50s. This is an amazing chapter in the history of midwifery and district nursing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end!
review 2: These 3 books are not a light read. Having seen and loved the show "Call the Midwife," about nurse midwives and nuns (also midwives) delivering babies in the East End of London in the mid to late 1950s and very early sixties, I guess I was expecting more light hearted fare. Indeed, the first book in the series, "Call the Midwife," i... mores remarkably like the show. It was as if the chapters translated directly into the screenplays, detail for detail. Jennifer Worth must have kept a diary for years because these books are filled with intricate detail, in addition to being thoroughly researched. However, if you shrink at brutality, especially toward children and the elderly, then the second book, "Shadows of the Workhouse," might not be for you. (The first book touched on the workhouses in one of the chapters.) I almost stopped reading the series with book 2 and couldn't sleep one night because of several chapters which dealt with the horrifying brutality to a little girl in the workhouse. However, it opened my eyes to what workhouses were really like, their purpose, and their "conversions" in the 1930s. I said to my husband that, sadly, it puts "Downton Abbey" in another light. However, as he pointed out, the workhouses were, however horrifying, a way of getting people off the streets and giving them a modicum of shelter and food. Here in Los Angeles many of us too often ignore the brutal fact that we have almost 60,000 people living on the streets (in 2013), enough to make a small city.The third book, "Farewell to East End," was a gentler read, again enlightening and filled with stories and background information on the lives of the nuns and nurse midwives. It was heartening and uplifting to read stories of the lasting friendships they forged in this desparately poor area of London, and what they did in the East End to bring remarkable health services to the poor, especially to pregnant women. Their calling was truly a life changer for women in that area for over 100 years.Jennifer Worth was (she passed away in 2011 after a brief illness) a wonderful and detailed writer, who not only told compelling "life" stories, but revealed an aspect of London history that has disappeared and probably would have been forgotten if not for her. The books contain bibliographies, glossaries of medical and obstetrical terms, lists for further reading, and even an appendix dealing with the Cockney dialect! I am indebted to Jennifer Worth for enlightening me about life in the East End of London in that era, as well as educating me about medical conditions, details of pregnancy and childbirth, and the health profession. less

Download links for: Call the Midwife Boxed Set: Call the Midwife, Shadows of the Workhouse, Farewell to the East End

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