Awards

• Short-listed for Galaxy British Book Awards: Play.com Popular Non-Fiction Award 2009
• Shortlisted for Galaxy British Book Awards: Play.com Popular Non-Fiction Award 2009.

Overview

Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure. But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour. She also earned the confidences of some whose lives were truly stranger, more poignant and more terrifying than could ever be recounted in fiction. Attached to an order of nuns who had been working in the slums since the 1870s, Jennifer tells the story not only of the women she treated, but also of the community of nuns (including one who was accused of stealing jewels from Hatton Garden) and the camaraderie of the midwives with whom she trained. Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving, Jennifer's stories bring to life the colourful world of the East End in the 1950s.

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9780753823835

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Reviews

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

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

Author Information

Jennifer Worth trained as a nurse at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, and was later ward sister at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in London, then the Marie Curie Hospital, also in London. Music had always been her passion, and in 1973 she left nursing in order to study music intensively, teaching piano and singing for about twenty-five years. Jennifer died in May 2011 after a short illness, leaving her husband Philip, two daughters and three grandchildren. Her books have all been bestsellers.

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