Tuesday, May 28, 2013

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday: Call the Midwife

Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday, wherein bloggers can share the first paragraph or (a few) of a book they are reading or thinking about reading soon.  Here's my contribution to the cause.



My son gave me a copy of Jennifer Worth's memoir, Call the Midwife, for Mother's Day, knowing how much I love the series, and I started it yesterday.

It opens with this paragraph:
Nonnatus House was situated in the heart of the London Docklands. The practice covered Stepney, Limehouse, Millwall, the Isle of Dogs, Cubitt Town, Poplar, Bow, Mile End and Whitechapel. The area was densely populated and most families had lived there for generations, often not moving more than a street or two away from their birthplace. Family life was lived at close quarters and children were brought up by a widely extended family of aunts, grandparents, cousins and older siblings, all living within a few houses, or at the most, streets of each other. Children would run in and out of each other's homes all the time and when I lived and worked there, I cannot remember a door ever being locked, except at night. 

More of the Introduction can be found here, if I've whetted your appetite sufficiently.

I'm about a third of way done with the book and it's absolutely marvelous.  So far, the series has been very faithful to the book, although the first mention of Dr. Turner included a reference to his wife and children...

I have discovered that Jennifer Worth wrote four books about her nursing career so I imagine I will end up with all of them eventually.

9 comments:

  1. I absolutely love this television series. How thoughtful of your son to give you this book as a Mother's Day present! Hope you enjoy it!

    Here's my Tuesday intro: http://www.bookclublibrarian.com/2013/05/first-chapter-first-paragraph-15-and.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds like one I might enjoy. How nice of your son Jane. Thanks so much for joining us; I appreciate it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes I think I'd like this one too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This one does look fascinating...thanks for sharing; and thanks for visiting my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This sounds wonderful! The series is in my Netflix queue and the book is on my wish list... think it would be a great summer read.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've also had the series in my Netflix queue. My to-be-watched stack is as bad as my to-be-read stack, and now I'm going to add this to the latter!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have heard that this worthy read. The beginning is certainly well written.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I keep hearing about this series. It's even in my Netflix queue! gotta get on this one :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Several members of my local book club have been raving about this series.....I really need to read the book. We don't do Netflix and we don't have a DVR, so the book it is!!! Thanks for sharing the intro.

    ReplyDelete