I have just watched the first episode of Call The Midwife, BBC One’s six-part adaptation of Jennifer Worth’s memoirs of her life as a midwife in the East End of London in the 1950s. I have to say, I’m really, really happy that BBC have done such a wonderful job.
I think it was some time in the early summer of 2008 that my affair with Jenny Lee (the young Jennifer Worth) began. I was going to the USA for a conference and a short holiday and so I went with a friend to a big bookshop to find suitable material to take with me. On the “Bestsellers” shelf a book “Shadows of the Workhouse” caught my eye - workhouses, prisons, hospitals, great houses - I love the memoirs of people who have worked in them or books about their histories. I bought it without really paying much attention to the subject matter other than that it was set in the East End in the 1950s, and was the memoir of a midwife. That midwife was Jennifer Worth, or Jenny Lee as she was in the 1950s. I took the book with me to the US and whilst reading it out there, I found that it was actually the second in a series.
At the end of my trip, I was scheduled to fly from Newark to Amsterdam and then on to the UK, overnight. I got to the airport in plenty of time, took my illicit supply of Valium, fell fast asleep on the plane only to wake up 3h later to find we were still on the runway - some storm had delayed us. Eventually we made it back to Amsterdam but, annoyingly, we had gained time and I now had 4h to wait for my connecting flight. My iPod battery was dead, my laptop battery was dead. I was dog-tired and grumpy and so settled down and read “Shadows of the Workhouse”. I’d not read beyond the first chapter thus far but I read the entire thing, cover-to-cover in 4h and was in tears by the end.
Seldom does a book reduce me to tears but this one managed it! I can’t say why because it would be a spoiler but as soon as I got home, I ordered the first book in the series “Call The Midwife” and devoured it in hours again. Worth writes in a very evocative way and brings the world of the 1950s East End back to life with all the sights, sounds and smells described in perfect detail. Every character right down to the meths drinkers and whores were loveable in some way. One thing that struck me was that Jennifer, even in her early 20s and a complete fish out of water, never judged anyone. She treated every patient with the professional dignity that was drilled into nurses of the Old School and never once cut corners or complained. Ok, she vented with her colleagues - but that’s normal. Her professionalism is a lesson to everyone, I think.
I later read the third instalment, “Farewell To The East End”, which tackles the slum clearances and the replacement of tenement blocks with tower blocks and the subsequent issues that arose from that. Jenny eventually fell in love, married and moved on from her career in midwifery to have children and then took up studying the piano, I assume to pass time whilst her children were little, but she was eventually of an extremely high grade. She then worked as a night sister and various other posts in hospitals for some years before giving it all up for her music.
I found out not too long ago that Jennifer had written another book - this time one about death and dying, entitled “In The Midst Of Life”. It took the form of a series of stories about people that she had nursed through death, their families, her own family members - the essential point being that 100 years ago, we let people die. Now, we try to prevent that, even when someone is clearly going to be dead, say, in a week, we will intervene to make sure they stay here that long. We give treatment for cancer that prolongs life by weeks or months but also prolongs suffering for the patient and family, even if perhaps they don’t realise it at the time. I don’t agree with all of Jennifer’s view in the book but it is indeed very moving and fascinating and I think something everyone in the medical profession should read.
I became aware that the Midwife Trilogy, as they are know, were to be made into a BBC drama - I was very happy to hear this since they are books that almost read as a screenplay - you can see it all on TV as you read it. The BBC seem to have done a lovely job - which I will expand more on after the second episode but I strongly recommend both the books and the series.
Jennifer Worth died in 2011, having never seen the TV adaptation of her memoirs, but it is so true to her original work that I think it is a great memorial to her and her wonderful books.
