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Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times (Midwife, Bk 1)
Call the Midwife A Memoir of Birth Joy and Hard Times - Midwife, Bk 1
Author: Jennifer Worth
At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Worth leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in post war London's East End slums. The colorful characters she meets while delivering babies all over London -- from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives to the woman with twenty-four children who can't speak En...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780143123255
ISBN-10: 0143123254
Publication Date: 8/29/2012
Pages: 352
Edition: Rep Mti
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 72

3.9 stars, based on 72 ratings
Publisher: Penguin Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times (Midwife, Bk 1) on + 289 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Originally published as simply The Midwife, the first volume of Jennifer Worths memoirs as a midwife in Londons East End in the 1950s was renamed Call the Midwife to coincide with the television series (on PBS in the United States.) Both the book and television forms were very enjoyable for me, in different ways. Whereas the television series was more visually appealing with stories modified to have story arcs that fit into an hour-long episode, the book offers a richer look at the community as a whole. In the book, the other student nurses were not as prominent. There was more medicine, and 1950s London seemed to resemble Dickens London more than I can imagine for 60 years ago. The appendix offers a section on the Cockney dialect and medical terms. Please note there is one heartbreaking and graphic section on prostitution. Anyone interested in nostalgia should take a look at both this book and the television series; Im looking forward to more installments of both!
reviewed Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times (Midwife, Bk 1) on + 191 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I really liked this book. It followed closely the show on PBS, but it gave a lot more detail in the book. A lot of little things that were left out of the show. So interesting to read about how antiquated things were back in the 50's, especially in England. Well worth the read. I loved it.
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Readnmachine avatar reviewed Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times (Midwife, Bk 1) on + 1472 more book reviews
Memoir of a London midwife in the 1950s, working in the dockyard slums. Many of the episodes related in the book became the basis for episodes of the fictionalized "Call the Midwife" television series.
CD0927 avatar reviewed Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times (Midwife, Bk 1) on + 39 more book reviews
Wonderful story of life in post-war London. Fascinating look into the lives of the midwives in the 1950s.


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