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Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London
 
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Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London (Hardcover)

by Jennifer Worth (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
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Frequently Bought Together

Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London + Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s + Farewell To The East End
Price For All Three: £20.97

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 294 pages
  • Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; New Ed edition (26 Jun 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0297853260
  • ISBN-13: 978-0297853268
  • Product Dimensions: 20 x 13.4 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 21,500 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #16 in  Books > History > Social & Economic History > Health & Welfare
    #41 in  Books > History > Cultural History > London
    #55 in  Books > Biography > Historical > Social & Urban History

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Product Description

EVENING STANDARD
'Worth is a vivid writer with a talent for the sting in the tail... a highly readable book - and a must for social planners.'

Review
'Worth is a vivid writer with a talent for the sting in the tail... a highly readable book - and a must for social planners.' (EVENING STANDARD )

'Jennifer Worth has a gift for storytelling and a keen eye for the evocative' (BBC WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? )

'These are powerful stories delivered with sweet charm and controlled outrage.' (TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT )

'Healthcare workers could learn a great deal from reading this book... compassionate, non-judgemental... tears rolled down my cheeks reading the final chapters.' (NURSING STANDARD )

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London
47% buy the item featured on this page:
Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London 4.5 out of 5 stars (10)
£7.99
Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London
26% buy
Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London 4.1 out of 5 stars (13)
£4.44
Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s
16% buy
Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s 4.7 out of 5 stars (64)
£4.49
Farewell To The East End
7% buy
Farewell To The East End 4.4 out of 5 stars (9)
£8.49
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I will never complain about my life being hard ever again!, 30 Dec 2005
By A Customer
This review is from: Shadows of the Workhouse (Paperback)
If you enjoyed Call the Midwife, you will definately enjoy this book, although the content is not midwifery related. There are three parts to the book, each containing stories of people who the author had known through her work.

Her descriptions of the hardship and poverty of early 1900's London, along with personal tragedy and sacrifice will make you weep, and feel thankful to be living in the 21st Century.

- Frank and Peggy, brother and sister, separated from their parents by death and then from each other by the workhouse... courage, hope, joy, and a real tear-jerker ending.

- Joe Collett - this story is a testament to the truly caring and generous spirit of the author - she goes above and beyond the call of duty in my opinion to befriend an old man - and hears a tale of army life and family courage spanning three wars, with more than a touch of tragedy along the way.

Beautifully written, I could not put it down.

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Definitive Account of the Meaning of Poverty, 5 Aug 2008
I was born in the East End in the 1950's, and still live there. However, Jennifer's account has brought to life the tales my parents and grandparents told me about how much a struggle life was for so many people, barely a bus ride from where I was living. Jennifer's portrayal of Mr. Collet's demise in an 'old folk's home', in the 60's, which was little better than the workhouses of 30 years previously starkly reminds us that man's inhumanity to man can come in many different forms, no matter how affluent / civilised / reformed our societies pretend to be. This book should be read by anyone who works in public office, if only to remind them that the attitudes and conditions of the recent past have not gone away; they're still out there and will come back if we allow them to.
Jennifer's comparison of modern East London tower blocks and housing estates taking the place of the old tenements tells us that rather than improving conditions, society has simply torn down the old and replaced them with tacky copies. Jennifer Worth should have gone into politics, for judging from her excellent books, this is one person who would have made a real difference. Next time I travel through Poplar, Limehouse and Stepney, I will now do so with a new interest.
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars midwifery in the raw, 6 Feb 2007
By Ms. A. McGregor "Fearnan" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Shadows of the Workhouse (Paperback)
This is a excellent book in many ways. It tells of a young woman's training in midwifery, undertaken under the supervision of an order of nuns whose mission was nursing and midwifery, in the poverty of east end London in the 1950's. If you are a training midwife (as I am) some of the discriptions are truly horrifying - watching a young woman die of eclampsia, stillbirths and diseases that you will never see in Britain today. It also shows how midwifery used to be practised in this country, in a time when midwives were independent and worked alone, when most women gave birth at home (sucessfully). As a social document it is also incredibly valuable - a discription of the devastation that workhouses left in their wake is a valuable reminder of how we used to treat poor people in this country, and how we must not allow shallow prejudices about teenage mothers and single parents (so easily scapegoated!) let us treat them as lesser, non-citizens. Also a useful reminder of how "the good old days" are a myth - things are better now in many ways, and there were teenage mums, drugs, prostitution and people trafficking then, too. I heartily recommend this to any one interested in midwifery, social history, and women's studies.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing
I picked up this book hoping to learn all about life in the Workhouse's in East London. Instead there were a couple of perfunctory and pointless chapters about past inmates. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Thalia

5.0 out of 5 stars East End Life Come to Light
Jennifer Worth writes with such pathos. Equally she is able to deliver her story in a highly readable style which makes it extremely enjoyable . Read more
Published 25 days ago by Stanley J. Marut

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
I loved this book. The facts about the workhouse are fascinating and the story telling by the author is engaging, entertaining,funny in someplaces, and very sad in others... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jane Ashe

5.0 out of 5 stars The Characters and their stories will touch you forever
I couldn't put this book down. The descriptions of the poor houses and how they were run hooked me from the first page, I ran the gamut of emotions throughout, I left one public... Read more
Published 6 months ago by T. Powell-Morris

4.0 out of 5 stars Shadows of the Workhouse
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was very heart warming and sad at the same time. I felt the writer really captured the atmosphere of those hard times. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Pauline Flynn

5.0 out of 5 stars Both heart-warming and heart-breaking at once
Matthew Parris states in the blurb on the back of the book that reading this made him cry on a crowded train. Read more
Published 9 months ago by R. Boden

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent follow up to Call the Midwife... can't wait for the third book
I read this book in 24 hours- I just could not put it down. I had high expectations, having "enjoyed" Call the Midwife. Read more
Published 10 months ago by C. Riddell

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