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Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s
 
 

Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s (Paperback)

by Jennifer Worth (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
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Frequently Bought Together

Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s + Shadows Of The Workhouse: The Drama Of Life In Postwar London + Farewell To The East End: The Last Days of the East End Midwives
Total RRP: £20.97
Price For All Three: £12.81

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Product details

  • Paperback: 376 pages
  • Publisher: Phoenix (6 Mar 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0753823837
  • ISBN-13: 978-0753823835
  • Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.2 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 933 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > History > Cultural History > London
    #5 in  Books > Biography > Historical > 1901 Onwards
    #5 in  Books > Biography > Historical > Social & Urban History

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Product Description

Review

"Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving" YORKSHIRE EVENING POST "Worth's portrait is subtle, skilfully describing a sense of community that no longer exists" FT MAGAZINE "an amazing if at times gut-wrenching read... a detailed trip into history which may raise a few tears and many eyebrows" WARWICKSHIRE TELEGRAPH "Misery memoir meets EastEnders with a bang!" GOOD BOOK GUIDE

Review

"Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving" (YORKSHIRE EVENING POST )

"Worth's portrait is subtle, skilfully describing a sense of community that no longer exists" (FT MAGAZINE )

"an amazing if at times gut-wrenching read... a detailed trip into history which may raise a few tears and many eyebrows" (WARWICKSHIRE TELEGRAPH )

"Misery memoir meets EastEnders with a bang!" (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

79 Reviews
5 star:
 (64)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (79 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Call the Midwife - a salutory experience, 27 Feb 2003
This review is from: Call the Midwife (Paperback)
'Call the Midwife' is a most extraordinary book and should be required reading of all students of midwifery, nursing, sociology and modern history. It tells of the experiences of a young trainee midwife in the East End of London in the 1950's and is a graphic portrayal of the quite appalling conditions that the East Enders endured. Some of the stories told by the author are so distressing that I have lost sleep over them and I find myself longing to know what ultimately became of Mary, the young Irish girl imprisoned for stealing a baby (her own baby having been removed from her when the nuns caring for her were unable to place her in a job that would allow her to keep her child). What happened to Mary's daughter? By my reckoning she should be a woman in her 50's now - was she ever told that she was adopted, that she had been removed from her adoring mother without Mary's consent? I have had nightmares too about the two little boys sheltering behind a chair to escape the violence of their mother's partner; what became of them, did they go on to inflict the same brutality on their own children? As a graduate of Modern History (and student midwife), I thought I knew a good deal about recent British history. How very wrong I was. This book gave me much pause for thought: the heroism of the nursing order of nuns that Jennifer Worth worked with; the courage of Jennifer Worth and her colleagues in delivering babies in the most appalling conditions; the survival instinct of the East End women - it was a complete eye-opener. Oh, that those who pursue financial gains through our litigious culture could read this book - huge families living without the basics of sanitation or even roofs (tarpaulins providing their shelter), Conchita and her 25 pregnancies. I await Jennifer Worth's promised follow-up with great anticipation - my only observation being that she needs to let us know what became of her 'heroes' and 'heroines' - did Conchita live to a ripe old age, did Mary ever escape the clutches of prostitution once released from prison? Come on Jennfer, please tell us. And congratulations on an incredible book - this student midwife looks in awe upon your skills, your courage, your ability to deliver a baby in the most desperate circumstances. And I salute the women of the 1950s East End.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating history of birth and East End, 4 Sep 2002
This review is from: Call the Midwife (Paperback)
This is the only book of its knid I have even heard of, let alone read. It's a true account of birth and babies in the East End of London in the 50s. Poverty and squalor were common, and there was very little ante or post-natal care. Midwives supervised home births by arriving on bikes, somethimes throught thick smog. I loved this book, which reads like fiction but is true. Anyone who has ever had anything to do with a baby being born - particularly mothers - or anyone who fancies an interesting slant on history should read this. She writes in a chatty, informal style and I could not put it down.
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41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Familiar Territory, 2 Nov 2003
By Mrs. Angela READ "Maturegrad" (Devizes, Wiltshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Call the Midwife (Paperback)
Like Jennifer Worth, I was a midwife in the Fifties. Her narrative awoke many memories for me, many I'd forgotten, some I'd tried to forget. An only child, protected from the 'nastiness' of real life, midwifery training at first shocked me and then drew me into a career full of love and life: I miss it still. My 'District' was suburban London and later on a West End hospital, but poverty was there,too, alongside a richness of spirit. I used to be embarrassed by my emotional response at every birth I attended:'Call the Midwife' made me shed tears again as my memories chimed with her experiences. The 'Kangaroo Care' of Conchita's baby specially drew me as I had a spell caring for premature babies and always felt that incubator care was too impersonal; thankfully this has changed now to allow mothers much more hands-on involvement with their tiny babies.
Incidentally, I trained medical students: are they really no longer trained in this way?
May I add my plea to Jennifer Worth to complete her trilogy; the only improvement on her first book would be two more of the same.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Want to be a midwife..
Im 16 years old and currently taking my alevels, this book is what i have been looking for! It gives great history of how times have changed, especially in the medical proffesion... Read more
Published 3 days ago by Ms. F. Evans

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read!
This book is really good. Perhaps it interests me as I am a student nurse, with a love of English history, but I think the merit is in the way Jennifer Worth writes. Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. Parker

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece
Call the Midwife, Shadows of the workhouse & Farewell to the East End, are by far a fabulous read. Gripping and enthralling to say the very least. Read more
Published 1 month ago by C. Holloway

5.0 out of 5 stars call the midwife
This is a fantastic book of midwifery in the 1950s a must for every midwife to read.
Published 1 month ago by L. Wilde

4.0 out of 5 stars Call the Midwife cd
Lovely story which I had previously read. Bought it for my Mum who is a retired nurse - she very much enjoyed.
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. M. Joyce

4.0 out of 5 stars INTERESTING READ TOTALLY ABSORBING READ.
I enjoyed this book very much and found it hard to put it down, it gave a insight into obviously the East End of London in the 50's as stated. Read more
Published 1 month ago by septimus-blake

2.0 out of 5 stars Book in poor condition
The supplier described the book's condition as Good. However, the spine was broken and the pages stained. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Noel G. Mcmullen

5.0 out of 5 stars A totally natural story teller
The keenest fiction writer would rarely be able to conjure such vivid and enthralling scenarios. Yet who would imagine a book of short stories about the delivery of babies would... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. N. Moffatt

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
An absolutely wonderful book. Beautifully written and totally absorbing. Can't wait to read the next one.
Published 3 months ago by prattfink

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling
I love non-fiction that tells me about a job or time in history that I don't know very much about. Call The Midwife is based on Jennifer Worth's experiences as a midwife in the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by susie

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