Description (from cover):'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 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.
Based on Jennifer Worth's bestselling memoirs, Call the Midwife is the true story behind the beloved PBS series.'
My thoughts:
I've recently discovered this television show and when I saw the books were on sale at Amazon, I snatched them up. I love Jenny's voice and how her world was changed by the women of London's East End. Jenny came from a privileged background, went to nursing school and found herself as a midwife in one of London's most seediest neighborhoods. She must put her upbringing behind her and focus on saving the lives of women and babies in less-than-desirable conditions. She has some help along the way with the nuns living at Nonnatus House and her other midwife friends.
I absolutely devoured this book. It consists of Jenny's experiences in the East End and shows the reader just how vulnerable she was acting as a midwife in a world that is so new to her. This book consists of stories that Jenny tells about her experiences and it's hard not to love it. I enjoy reading the books as much as I do watching the television show. The reader gets to see how Jenny is humbled by the people who live in the East End and how she must adapt to her surroundings.
I like characters who have to struggle to achieve something, and Jenny is a perfect example of this. Even though she is a real person, I personally think that her voice and her experiences bring so much to this novel. I simply couldn't stop with the first one, so I am now reading the second one published by Worth, as I find her travails so interesting. It is also fascinating to see how different the medical world was in the 1950's and how medicine has changed so drastically over the past 60 years. I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves to read about real experiences and enjoy watching a character grow and become someone quite remarkable.
Overall Rating: 4
Title: Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times
Author: Jennifer Worth
Series: Call the Midwife #1
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication Date: August 29, 2012 (Reprint)
Pages: 352
Genre: Nonfiction
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was purchased by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
