• Call the Midwife

  • A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
  • By: Jennifer Worth
  • Narrated by: Nicola Barber
  • Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (9,306 ratings)

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Call the Midwife

By: Jennifer Worth
Narrated by: Nicola Barber
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Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Solo Narration - Female, 2013

At the age of 22, Jennifer Worth left her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in postwar London’s East End slums. The colorful characters she met while delivering babies all over London - from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lived to the woman with 24 children who couldn't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city’s seedier side - illuminate a fascinating time in history. Beautifully written and utterly moving, Call the Midwife will touch the hearts of anyone who is, and everyone who has, a mother.

©2002 Jennifer Worth (P)2012 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"A charming tale of deliveries and deliverance." ( Kirkus Reviews)

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What listeners say about Call the Midwife

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    6,178
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    2,202
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    639
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Story
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    583
  • 2 Stars
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a beautiful story based in fact

I love listening to these memories at this nurse and the wonderful but difficult times of the 1950s in London. Very well written very well told.

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Better than the Television Series

Where does Call the Midwife rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is an excellent book, with a strong and capable narrator in Nicola Barber. I am a big fan of the BBC series and was not expecting the book to be as good. In fact, I enjoyed the book even more. Stories that were quickly touched on in the series are given greater detail. You get a much stronger sense of the neighborhood and times in the East End of London, and how difficult it was for the families living in that area during that period of time.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Call the Midwife?

I greatly enjoyed hearing the detail of Sister Monica Joan's life.

Any additional comments?

Nicola Barber does an excellent job of narration.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Delightful!

Great story! Wonderful way to understand the place and time through the eyes of the midwife. Highly recommend!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Enjoyable Read

I didn't eat the tv series, the book was very interesting though. They touched on a lot of different senerals that I never really thought about. A good read.

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very good

It took me a little while to get into the book, but that might be because I have seen the show which is formatted quite differently. still over a wonderful read...err listen.

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I would listen to this book again!

Any additional comments?

This book is mostly written about different people and stories she encounters, not much about her own personal story. I love midwife books and enjoyed this one greatly. She had a very british accent and at times a few words to understand, but I love the narrator otherwise.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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poor reader

Would you be willing to try another one of Nicola Barber’s performances?

No! Her very whispery voice was irritating and hard to follow. I will read the other midwife books rather than listen to them.

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    3 out of 5 stars

Light and quippy, but not profound enough

This was a fun little read; however, I felt as though it was all accomplished with a kind of surface-y air... the reader becomes entrenched in the slums of England, but it appeared that Ms. Worth maintained her English sensibilities and didn't want to see "too depressing" so all anecdotes seemed to end up with a silly anecdote or Hollywood ending, apparently in an attempt to encourage the reader to "hang in there ole' chap."

I would have preferred to really be immersed in the culture- to not have a Mary Poppins view of this time and place (a tidy bed and midwife can soothe even the most depraved environment?), but rather understand that some days must have been demoralizing and disheartening.

Additionally, as a "memoir," Ms. Worth alluded to lost love, a scandalous past, and the crazy route that brought her to midwifery- however, the reader was only teased with these, and forced to "take her word for it." I would have gotten more for this read if I had a better understanding of what path her life had taken to leave her with such a sunny disposition in trying circumstances.

The reader did a GREAT job. I have not watched the PBS show of this novel, though could see the characters come to live thanks to Ms. Barbar's narration.

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Additional information given...

I've watched CTM since it first started on PBS. I liked that there were a few bits of aditional information given, nothing major, but enough to keep the storyline interesting.

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Better than the Show

What made the experience of listening to Call the Midwife the most enjoyable?

This book is so wonderfully written that you feel as if you are there experiencing every moment with the narrator.

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