Call the Midwife

The book “Call the Midwife” is Jennifer Worth’s memoirs about her life and work in London in the 1950s. Young Jenny Lee, surprised even by herself, takes a job as a midwife for the community of Saint Raymond Nonnatus in the East End. Dirty streets marked by the recent war, noisy docks, overcrowded apartment blocks, crime, and extreme poverty—mid-20th-century this district simply couldn’t be called prosperous. The nurses and nuns of the community were then the only ones who tirelessly cared for women from poor working families. Working as a midwife, the author watched the hard life of these people day after day, became a witness to their tragedies and joys, and grew convinced of the incredible strength of their character.

At the end of her life, Jennifer Worth wrote a striking book about that time, about the nuns and ordinary East Enders—the first literary account of the selfless work of midwives. No wonder “Call the Midwife” became an indisputable bestseller: to date, only in the UK more than one million copies have been sold.

In 2012, the book was adapted for film by the BBC. The TV series “Call the Midwife” has drawn more than ten million viewers and became the most successful drama series on BBC One since 2001.