Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth

Not a nun herself, she was one of a number of secular young nurses who worked with an order she has chosen to call the Sisters of St Raymond Nonnatus after the patron saint of midwives, obstetricians, pregnant women, childbirth & newborn babies. In the 1950s Jennifer Worth became a midwife attached to a convent in the East End.

The system wasn't abolished until the 1930s and then only in name. What most of us don't realise is how long 'the Workhouse' survived. But it did have a ring of finality about it, a fate every bit as terminal as a revolution tumbrel. The very fact that we use those words carted off implies an inescapable fate. Pictures of grimy people in 1800s unable to fend for themselves, ending up destitute and scared and carted off to the workhouse. What does that make you think of? Dickens probably. Evocative, heartbreaking, and a valid historical social record. In Shadows she shares some of their life stories with us. These stories give a fascinating insight into the resilience and spirit that enabled ordinary people to overcome their difficulties.Summary: Jennifer Worth worked as a midwife-cum-district-nurse in Poplar and the Isle of Dogs in the 1950s, working among people whose lives had always been hard. She is let off with a warning, but then Jennifer finds stolen jewels from Hatton Garden in the nun's room. And Sister Monica Joan, the eccentric ninety-year-old nun, is accused of shoplifting some small items from the local market. The Reverend Thornton-Appleby-Thorton, a missionary in Africa, visits the Nonnatus nuns and Sister Julienne acts as matchmaker. At the time, there was no other option for them but the workhouse. Peggy and Frank's parents both died within 6 months of each other and the children were left destitute. There's Jane, who cleaned and generally helped out at Nonnatus House - she was taken to the workhouse as a baby and was allegedly the illegitimate daughter of an aristocrat.

In this follow up to CALL THE MIDWIFE, Jennifer Worth, a midwife working in the docklands area of East London in the 1950s tells more stories about the people she encountered. A fascinating slice of East End life, from the No.1 bestselling author of CALL THE MIDWIFE, now a major BBC TV series.

Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth