Farewell To The East End - Tapa dura

compelling (TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT)

we are introduced to a host of colourful East End characters and the heartrending tragedies that befell so many of them... a great read (FAMILY HISTORY MONTHLY)

a fascinating and valuable insight into the cultural history of an area and people that is now barely recognisable... uncompromising and gripping... life affirming. (NURSING STANDARD)

This final book in Jennifer Worth's memories of her time as a midwife in London's East end brings her story full circle. As always there are heartbreaking stories such as the family devastated by tuberculosis and a ship's woman who 'serviced' the entire crew, as well as plenty of humour and warmth such as the tale of Megan'mave, two women who shared the same husband! Other stories cover backstreet abortions, the changing life of the docklands, infanticide, as well as the lives of the inhabitants of Nonnatus House. We discover what happens with the gauche debutant Chummy and her equally gauche policeman; will Sister Monica Joan continue her life of crime?; will Sister Evangelina ever crack a smile? And what of Jennifer herself? The book not only details the final years of the tenements that but also of Jennifer's journey as she moves on from the close community of nuns, and her life takes a new path.