Farewell to the East End is the third and final `Midwife' book by Jennifer Worth. She has excelled herself again with stories of the East End of London, their inhabitants, their births and deaths as well as the tales of her colleagues especially the Nuns. Fans of Sister Monica Joan will not be disappointed.
I know that Worth has used some poetic licence with the telling of these stories, as she does not reveal the real name and location of the Convent where she is based. And a number of her stories are gleaned from fellow nurses and midwives over the years and Worth has added dialogue for the purpose of the story telling. To me this does not matter all it does is enrich the story and give it much more of a sense of purpose.
The East End of London was changing as the Sixties dawned. The docks were changing from what they were during the Second World War, and with that the inhabitants of the area that fed the docks with their labour were changing as well.
Worth tells us many stories of differing outcomes which are based around the characters living in and around the docks. In the case of Worth's colleague `Chummy' wanting to become a missionary is called to the docks in the night and ends up swaying on a rope ladder onto a visiting ship where it is reported that someone has given birth? But the ships only carry a male crew so is her visit a wasted one or is she walking into something that is another world with differing morals?
The feature of tuberculosis is strong throughout the book; this is a disease which killed generations of families with no care for who it touched. Medicine has come a long way since those early days of the fifties. There is as much history of disease and conditions in this book to make it an informative read as well as a piece of escapism.
I have tried to avoid regurgitating the stories featured in this book into the review, lest you will not go and buy the book and enjoy them yourself. There is a sense that the end is coming for the area that Worth works in, the convent and the Nuns who reside and work there and Worth's fellow midwives are moving on in different parts of their lives. Although the end it is now fast becoming the beginning of the next adventure for them all.
