Shadows of the Workhouse cover art

Shadows of the Workhouse

The Drama of Life in Postwar London

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Shadows of the Workhouse

By: Jennifer Worth
Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
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About this listen

A fascinating slice of East End life, from the number one best-selling author of Call the Midwife, now a major BBC TV series.

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.

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. Peggy and Frank's parents both died within six months of each other, and the children were left destitute. At the time, there was no other option for them but the workhouse.

The Reverend Thornton-Appleby-Thorton, a missionary in Africa, visits the Nonnatus nuns, and Sister Julienne acts as matchmaker. And Sister Monica Joan, the eccentric 90-year-old nun, is accused of shoplifting some small items from the local market. She is let off with a warning, but then Jennifer finds stolen jewels from Hatton Garden in the nun's room. These stories give a fascinating insight into the resilience and spirit that enabled ordinary people to overcome their difficulties.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our Desktop Site.

©2008 Jennifer Worth (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group
Biographies & Memoirs Sociology England

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beautifully told

loved the history lessons that come with this story. it's beautifully told and very compassionate

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VERY INTERESTING

Great to read of the history of the East End in this period of time 1950-1960.

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Brilliant

What a book. Will listen again. Wonderful narration by Juliet. The description of the ‘flashbacks’ needs to be heard by many.

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You won't find a bigger fan!!

As a die hard fan of the television series, this book gave me a much better understanding of the work houses. Jane Sutton was never given a wrap in the show and I am glad the memoirs gave us that.

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Informative, entertaining and very sad

Brilliantly written and narrated. Well researched and the characters true to life. Displaying the very best and very worst of humanity

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I love Call the Midwife

Nothing I throughly enjoy listening to all the books by Jennifer Worth they are really easy to listen to at anytime of of the day

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Harrowingly Mesmorising

Wow! Another beautifully written book by Jennifer Worth. Broken up into 3 parts that follow different people's life stories. Be prepared with tissues, as you will have a few tears. it's hard to believe this all happened less than 100 years ago.

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Riveting

Laughed cried and loved this audiobook - great narration of a past time in 50’s Britain

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started off great

Started great, really enjoyed the 3 work house stories in the first half of the book. Then the remaining stories had absolutely nothing to do with workhouses. For a book called Shadows of the Workhouse it was a bit weird, almost like 2 halves of completely different books. Narrator is fantastic.

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Won’t download all chapters

Was really good but then with 5 hours to go would not download. Every other book I have purchased downloads.
Sad as great listen

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