Jennifer Louise Worth
RN RM (; 25 September 1935 – 31 May 2011) was a British
memoirist. She wrote a best-selling trilogy about her work as a
nurse
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
and
midwife
A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.
The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; ...
practising in the poverty-stricken
East End of London
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have univ ...
in the 1950s: ''
Call the Midwife'', ''
Shadows of the Workhouse
''Shadows of the Workhouse'' is a 2005 book by British author Jennifer Worth (1935-2011). It formed the basis for the second series of the television drama ''Call the Midwife''.
Setting
Although Britain's workhouses were officially abolished i ...
'' and ''Farewell to The East End''. A television series, ''
Call the Midwife'', based on her books, began broadcasting on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
on 15 January 2012. After leaving nursing, she re-trained as a musician.
Biography
Jennifer Louise Lee was born in
Clacton-on-Sea,
Essex
Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...
, on 25 September 1935, to Gordon and Elsie (née Gibbs) Lee.
Worth was raised in
Amersham
Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, from Aylesbury and from High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter be ...
, Buckinghamshire. She had a younger sister, Christine, and two younger paternal half-sisters. After leaving school at the age of 15
she learned
shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''s ...
and
typing
Typing is the process of writing or inputting text by pressing keys on a typewriter, computer keyboard, mobile phone or calculator. It can be distinguished from other means of text input, such as handwriting and speech recognition. Text can b ...
and became the secretary to the head of
Dr Challoner's Grammar School
Dr Challoner's Grammar School (also known as DCGS, Challoner's Boys or simply Challoner's) is a selective grammar school for boys, with a co-educational Sixth Form, in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. It was given academy status in January 2 ...
. She then trained as a nurse at the
Royal Berkshire Hospital,
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...
, and moved to London to receive training to become a midwife.
"Jenny" Lee was hired as a
staff nurse
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ca ...
at the
London Hospital in
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
in the 1950s. With the
Sisters of St John the Divine, an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
community of nuns, she worked to aid the poor.
She was then a ward sister at the
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest ...
. She left midwifery to work in
palliative care
Palliative care (derived from the Latin root , or 'to cloak') is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Wit ...
at the
Marie Curie Hospice in
Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough o ...
.
She married the artist Philip Worth in 1963, and they had two daughters.
Worth left nursing in 1973 to pursue her musical interests. In 1974, she was appointed a
licentiate of the
London College of Music
London College of Music (LCM) is a music school in London, England. It is one of eight separate schools that make up the University of West London.
History
LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at ...
, where she taught piano and singing. She obtained a fellowship in 1984. She performed as a soloist and with choirs throughout the UK and Europe.
Besides her career in nursing and her writing,
Worth taught piano in the front room of her big family home, known as the White House on the St. John’s Road in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead. She held regular concerts for all her piano pupils as a target to work towards, where pupils would perform to a crowd of other pupils and their parents. An excruciating experience for some of the children performing, but giving rhythm and targets in her teaching of music. She also supported her pupils through the musical grades. She drank tea ferociously through each piano lesson and could always be heard singing her way from the kitchen to the grand front parlour with her tray of teapots and cups. A small dark rosewood Blüthner of Leipzig, grand piano was used by herself, her daughters and her pupils. Her piano lessons were classical and gave her pupils sound musical theory. To her pupils she seemed very classical and somewhat formal, but she was a deeply talented woman who imparted a love for singing and music.
Jenny Worth was also a keen and accomplished gardener, with green fingers, tending to the White House's sumptuous grounds and to a vegetable allotment in Chaulden Allotments 400m from her home.
Many years later she began writing, and her first volume of memoirs, ''
Call the Midwife'', was published in 2002. The book became a best-seller when it was reissued in 2007. ''Shadows of the Workhouse'' (2005; reissued 2008) and ''Farewell to the East End'' (2009) also became best-sellers.
The trilogy sold almost a million copies in the UK alone.
In a fourth volume of memoirs, ''In the Midst of Life'', published in 2010, Worth reflects on her later experiences caring for the terminally ill.
Activism
Worth was highly critical of
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Des ...
's 2004 film ''
Vera Drake
''Vera Drake'' is a 2004 British period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and starring Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Daniel Mays and Eddie Marsan. It tells the story of a working-class woman in London in 1950 who performs illegal ab ...
'', for depicting the consequences of
illegal abortions unrealistically. She argued that the method shown in the movie, far from being fairly quick and painless, was in fact almost invariably fatal for the woman. As a result of the harm done with such illegal procedures, she approved of the
legalization of abortion in the UK, saying this was a medical, not moral, issue.
Death
Worth died on 31 May 2011, having been diagnosed with
cancer of the oesophagus earlier in the year.
Deeply religious, she had a commitment to God.
The first episode of the television series ''
Call the Midwife'', based on her experiences in
Poplar, London
Poplar is a district in East London, England, the administrative centre of the borough of Tower Hamlets. Five miles (8 km) east of Charing Cross, it is part of the East End.
It is identified as a major district centre in the London Plan ...
, in the late 1950s, was dedicated to her.
Publications
*
* ''
Call the Midwife'' (First book in the Midwife trilogy) (2002)
* ''
Shadows of the Workhouse
''Shadows of the Workhouse'' is a 2005 book by British author Jennifer Worth (1935-2011). It formed the basis for the second series of the television drama ''Call the Midwife''.
Setting
Although Britain's workhouses were officially abolished i ...
'' (Second book in the Midwife trilogy) (2005)
* (Third book in the Midwife trilogy)
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Worth, Jennifer
1935 births
2011 deaths
People from Clacton-on-Sea
English memoirists
English midwives
Nurses from London
English classical pianists
English women pianists
English Anglicans
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from esophageal cancer
20th-century English writers
21st-century English writers
20th-century English women writers
21st-century English women writers
British women memoirists
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century English singers
20th-century English women singers
20th-century women pianists