The highest-rated drama in BBC history, Call the Midwife will delight fans of Downton Abbey Viewers everywhere have fallen in love with this candid look at post-war London. In the 1950s, twenty-two-year-old Jenny Lee leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in London’s East End slums. While delivering babies all over the city, Jenny encounters a colorful cast of … encounters a colorful cast of women—from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives, to the woman with twenty-four children who can’t speak English, to the prostitutes of the city’s seedier side.
An unfortgettable story of motherhood, the bravery of a community, and the strength of remarkable and inspiring women, Call the Midwife is the true story behind the beloved PBS series, which will soon return for its sixth season.
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Great book! Funny and informative about the history of midwives.
Foundation for the tv series, I plan on reading the next two volumes.
Glad I’m retired because I just couldn’t put it down.
If you are a fan of the BBC program, you will love Jennifer Worth’s accounting of her early days as a midwife in England
Great storytelling
If you like the show, you will love the book!
The PBS series is as faithful to this book as a television adaptation can be. Some of the stories were familiar from watching the TV version, but there were also events not covered by the PBS episodes. I enjoyed reading “Call the Midwife.”
The author describes the people and situations well. You learn a lot about life in the 50’s in the area of London where she worked. I had a hard time putting it down.
As a retired OB nurse, I enjoyed reading some of the history behind the practice of midwifery, especially the background of the poor in postwar England. Well written and descriptive of the characters.
Very informative. A good story line.
Good characters. Great if you’re interested in nursing or English social history.
Fun read for a real Nurse. I enjoy the TV series and loved the book! Sister Monica Joan is a hoot!
The author prefaced her story about the idea that many books are written about doctors and nurses but none about midwives. The book is delightful as is the series on TV.
Was very interesting and well written
even better than the TV show! Now I want book two.
very humane and a reminder of how rare midwives are in the US today – if we had them maternal death would be more rare
Historical fiction at its best.
Love the tv show so I thought I would read the book. Good read .
I had to get this book after watching the series. Both are very enjoyable and I ended up getting all of the sequels.
Was almost a book of short stories and some of them I really enjoyed and stayed with me. The main character, however, seemed a little flat. She did have an interesting revelation in the end, which I thought was good.
I would recommend this book to be read by any gender. It takes you to a place in history that was tragic for many families and very good to others. The reader sees the sacrifices of the midwives in all manor of ways and at all times day and night. There were men of course but most new very little about reproduction and mostly did not want to know more or have more children in such times as they were. True to the time in history and I still think it is present even in this day and age thatsingle moms are frowned on, no matter the cercomstances.
This book also touched on the poverty of the elderly especially when no family was left to care for them or could not afford to.
Vicki L. Mc Kune