Jennifer Worth
Jennifer Worth (born September 25, 1935 in Clacton-on-Sea as Jennifer Lee , † May 31, 2011 ) was a British nurse , midwife , musician and author .
She became known through her book trilogy Call the Midwife , Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell to The East End , in which she reported on her work as a midwife in London's East End in the 1950s. Each of the three books sold over a million copies in the UK alone. The books served Heidi Thomas as a template for the scripts of the successful television series Call the Midwife - Ruf des Lebens , in which her character was portrayed by actress Jessica Raine and her memories were spoken by Vanessa Redgrave .
Life
Jennifer Lee was born in Clacton-on-Sea in September 1935, where her parents went on vacation. She grew up in Amersham and attended Belle Vue School in Little Chalfont , which she left at the age of 14.
After training in shorthand and typing , she became secretary to the director of Dr Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham. She then trained at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading and then moved to London. First she supported the nuns of the Community of St. John the Divine as a midwife in the London borough of Poplar . She later worked as a nurse at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel , then at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in Euston and later at the Marie Curie Hospital in Hampstead .
In 1973 she stopped working as a nurse and devoted herself to music. She received a license to teach at the London College of Music in 1974 , where she taught piano and singing for 25 years. In 1984 she became a Fellow of the London College of Music. She has performed solo and with various choirs in the UK and other European countries.
After surviving a serious illness, she wrote her first book Eczema and Food Allergy: The Hidden Cause? in which she explained the basic ideas of her therapy.
In 1998, Worth read an article in the Midwives Journal complaining that the important role of midwives in popular literature was virtually neglected. The article ended by saying that the midwifery guild needed an author like James Herriot . It was with this drive that Worth wrote the first volume of her memoir , which was published by Merton Books in 2002 under the title Call the Midwife . The second part, Shadows of the Workhouse, followed in 2005, and the third part, Farewell to the East End , concluded the trilogy in 2009. After the first volume was reissued by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2007, all three books became bestsellers . In the UK alone, each of the books sold over a million copies.
In 2010 her last book, In the Midst of Life , was published, in which Worth addressed the topic of terminal care.
Worth supported the screenwriter Heidi Thomas in preparing the scripts for the television series Call the Midwife . She did not live to see the series broadcast. She succumbed to cancer at the end of May 2011. The first episode of Call the Midwife is dedicated to her.
Her marriage to the artist Philip Worth in 1963 resulted in two daughters.
Works
- Eczema and Food Allergy: The Hidden Cause? Merton Books, 1997, ISBN 1-872560-02-4 .
- Call the Midwife. Merton Books, 2002, ISBN 0-297-85966-8 .
- Shadows of the Workhouse. Merton Books, 2005, ISBN 0-06-227004-4 .
- Farewell to The East End. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009, ISBN 978-0-297-85779-2 .
- In the midst of life. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010, ISBN 978-0-297-85958-1 .
Web links
- Jennifer Worth at orionbooks.co.uk
- Jennifer Worth in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Jennifer Worth Obituary at telegraph.co.uk, accessed August 17, 2015.
- ↑ a b c Jennifer Worth Obituary at theguardian.com, accessed August 17, 2015.
- ↑ a b An interview with Jennifer Worth at wnblog.co.uk, accessed August 17, 2015.
- ↑ In the Midst of Life ( Memento of the original from August 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at dignityindying.org.uk, accessed August 17, 2015.
- ↑ Call the Midwife creator Heidi Thomas: TV series won't suffer when source material runs out at radiotimes.com, accessed on August 17, 2015.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Worth, Jennifer |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lee, Jennifer (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British nurse, midwife, musician and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 25, 1935 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Clacton-on-Sea |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 31, 2011 |