TELEVISION viewers will soon be settling down on a Sunday evening to watch a BBC adaptation of a trilogy of books by a Hemel Hempstead author.
Based on the best-selling memoirs of the late Jennifer Worth, Call The Midwife is a moving, intimate, funny and true-to-life look at the colourful stories of midwifery and families in East London during the 1950s.
An all-star cast, including Vanessa Redgrave, who narrates as Jennifer, Pam Ferris, Jenny Agutter and Miranda Hart, features in the series.
Jennifer, who passed away in May aged 75, took up the challenge of writing about her experiences after she read a paper by clinical editor Terri Coates saying there were no books about midwives.
Having spent two decades working as a nurse, midwife, ward sister and night sister between 1953 until 1973 in London’s East End, Jennifer had plenty to say.
She spent much of her time at home in St John Road, Boxmoor, handwriting her experiences and in 2002 Merton Books first published Call The Midwife.
It was later reissued in 2007 by Orion Books, which also published Jennifer’s sequels, Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell To The East End.