Call the Midwife

A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times

By: Jennifer Worth

Narrated by: Nicola Barber

Length: 12 hrs and 1 min

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)

Excellent - a captivating window into another time

What did you love best about Call the Midwife?

Well written and perfectly narrated.

What did you like best about this story?

It is very captivating, I love the descriptions of the East End of London at that time, and the character descriptions were perfect.

wonderful

This book is very enjoyable. I absolutely enjoyed the narrator and will buy a book just for her.

Entertaining and eye-opening

I am a mother of two young children and found these stories to be eye-opening and engaging. I like listening while in the car or at work and the format of this book made it easy to listen in short bursts without feeling like I am lost within the story. My only negative is that the narrator's voice is incredibly soft and demure, so she is sometimes almost hard to hear.

Call the Midwife

An interesting look at post WWII England. Shows the tenacity of women in difficult and hopeful time.

Engrossing

This was so well done. First, as an audiobook, the performer managed a strong empathic voice that - while remaining calm and even despite some truly difficult moments - gave me what I think was the perfect tone for the author herself: this is a capable woman who has faced down death, poverty, life, joy, hate, fear, and hope.

Second, the story itself - a memoir - isn't told in a linear fashion so much as a collection of stories around themes, usually dealing with a birth or a single person or notion. The whole becomes all the stronger as you feel each of these pieces come together. As this is a memoir, in life people sometimes come and go without any sense of true completion, but Worth does a lovely job of telling tales of those she knew that are more-or-less whole, or - if left unfinished - are still poignant and important pieces of her journey.

And it is a journey. As much as I learned about a place and time, I also learned about Jennifer Worth (then Jenny Lee) and I found it completely charming to hear her progression from slightly arrogant and aristocratic in view to slowly softening and - to my surprise - even someone brushing with faith. As someone who has a rather antagonistic view of much of organized religion (especially Christianity as a whole), her discourse on her slow building relationship with the faith (mostly through her interaction with the nuns) was gentle and appealing, and in all frankness, I was happily not put off her story.

I'm not sure if I want to keep going with the series right away, but rather think I'll let it simmer in my mind for a while, first.

Nicola Barber was the best!

The narrator was the best I have heard! She could do so many different voices and it was as if you were listening to different people. I will have to look for other books read by this narrator. The story was very captivating too
and hard to put down.

Excellent book. Profound theme.

Loved it. Highly recommended. It is an excellent theme and worthy of anyone's time. Love the ahow, too.

Both uplifting and heart wrenching

This was an incredible story, at times uplifting and life affirming, it was also heart wrenching and sickening to hear about the conditions people lived in and with. But as awful as some of the histories and filth were, each episode was profound and a well told story. The East End in the 50s is like another world, unimaginable from this distance (of both time and place, but most of all in technology and standard of living). I grew to like many of the characters, especially the Sisters. There were so many interesting folks in the lives of these nurses and midwives, some of the most loving and lively families... I think my favorite stories were of Jack, Chummy's bicycle guardian, and the Warren family. The story of Mrs. Jenkins brought tears for her anguish. All I can think, having heard of so many dangers and circumstances they had to cope with, is that I am that much more thankful for the advantages I have been granted.
The narration was wonderful, and breathed life into each of the many and varied personalities, from the Sisters, middle class girls, and the Cockney community. Wonderful book.

Great story!

Lovely writing, descriptive, engaging and realistic. The narrator did well with the accents but spoke too softly, almost in a whisper at times that made it difficult to hear.

Fabulous

I started reading the series after watching the TV show, and the books are even more dramatic and amazing!