Jennifer Worth

{{Short description|British nurse, midwife, author and musician}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Jennifer Worth

| honorific_suffix = RN RM

| image = Jennifer Worth 1950s.jpg

| caption = Worth as a nurse in the 1950s

| birth_name = Jennifer Samantha Louise Lee

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1935|9|25}}

| birth_place = Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2011|5|31|1935|9|25}}

| death_place = England

| body_discovered =

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| known_for =

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| occupation = Nurse, musician, author

| years_active =

| spouse = {{marriage|Philip Worth|1963}}

| children = Suzannah Hart, Juliette Walton

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}}

Jennifer Louise Worth RN RM ({{née|Lee}}; 25 September 1935 – 31 May 2011) was a British memoirist. She wrote a best-selling trilogy about her work as a nurse and midwife practising in the poverty-stricken East End of London in the 1950s: Call the Midwife (2002), Shadows of the Workhouse (2005) and Farewell to The East End (2009). A television series, Call the Midwife, based on her books, began broadcasting on BBC One in the UK on 15 January 2012 and on PBS in the US on 30 September 2012.{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2012/030112midwife.html |title=Call The Midwife |work=BBC Media Centre |date=20 January 2012 |access-date=23 January 2012}} After leaving nursing, she re-trained as a musician.

Biography

Jennifer "Jenny" Louise Lee was born in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, on 25 September 1935, to Gordon and Elsie (née Gibbs) Lee. Worth was raised in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. She had a younger sister, Christine, and two younger paternal half-sisters. Worth was educated at the independent Bournemouh School for girls. After leaving school at the age of 15{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/06/jennifer-worth-obituary |title=Obituary : Jennifer Worth |first=Eva |last=Park |work=The Guardian |date=6 July 2011 |location=London |issn=0261-3077 |oclc=60623878 |access-date=23 January 2012}} she learned shorthand and typing{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/8671467/Jennifer-Worth.html |title=Books Obituaries: Jennifer Worth |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=29 July 2011 |location=London |issn=0307-1235 |oclc=49632006 |access-date=23 January 2012}} and became the secretary to the head of Dr Challoner's Grammar School. She then trained as a nurse at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, in Reading, and moved to London to receive training to become a midwife.

Lee was hired as a staff nurse at the London Hospital in Whitechapel in the 1950s. With the Sisters of St John the Divine, an Anglican community of nuns, she worked to aid the poor. She was then a ward sister at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in Bloomsbury. She left midwifery to work in palliative care at the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead.{{cite web |url=http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/news/bestselling-author-jennifer-worth-dies |title=Bestselling author Jennifer Worth dies |work=Orion Books |year=2011 |access-date=23 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611163303/https://www.orionbooks.co.uk/news/bestselling-author-jennifer-worth-dies |archive-date=11 June 2015 |url-status=dead }}

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, 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.

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. In 2007 Worth was honored with the Royal Red Cross for her services in healthcare.{{cite news |last1=Selley |first1=Sarah |title=Student nurse celebrates the impact of Call the Midwife author Jenny Worth |url=https://www.gpcaregroup.org/news/student-nurse-celebrates-the-impact-of-call-the-midwife-author-jenny-worth/ |access-date=6 April 2025 |agency=GP Care Group |date=29 May 2024}} In October 2009, she received the Mothers Naturally Award for Outstanding book for her memoir.{{cite web |title=Jennifer Worth Books In Order |url=https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/jennifer-worth/ |website=Book Series In Order |publisher=Graeme |access-date=6 April 2025}} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/literature-and-film/in-the-midst-of-life-book-review.html |title=Book review: In the Midst of Life |first=D.G |last=Compton |work=Dignity in Dying |year=2012 |access-date=23 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120411023521/http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/literature-and-film/in-the-midst-of-life-book-review.html |archive-date=11 April 2012 |df=dmy-all }}

Activism

Worth was highly critical of Mike Leigh's 2004 film Vera Drake, for depicting the consequences of illegal abortions unrealistically. She argued that the method shown in the film, 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.{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/jan/06/health.healthandwellbeing |title=A midwife responds to Mike Leigh's Vera Drake |first=Jennifer |last=Worth |work=The Guardian |date=6 January 2005 |location=London |issn=0261-3077 |oclc=60623878 |access-date=23 January 2012}}

Death

Worth died on 31 May 2011,{{where|date=February 2020}} having been diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus earlier in the year.{{cite web |url= http://www.rcm.org.uk/midwives/news/midwife-author-jennifer-worth-dies/ |title=Midwife author Jennifer Worth dies |first=Gareth |last=Price |work=Royal College of Midwives |date=7 June 2011 |access-date=23 January 2012}} Her ashes were scattered at sea in accordance to her wishes. 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, in the late 1950s, was dedicated to her. A fictionalised version of her is played in the first three series by Jessica Raine, and the series is narrated by Vanessa Redgrave as an older version of her.

Worth's memoirs and their BBC adaptation have influenced public understanding of midwifery, with some programs in the UK reporting increased enrollment following the show's premiere.{{cite journal |last1=McGann |first1=Stephen |title=From how to who: accuracy and authenticity in the portrayal of the medic in TV drama |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |date=April 2015 |volume=108 |issue=4 |pages=123–126 |doi=10.1177/0141076815579584 |url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4406892/ |issn=1758-1095|pmc=4406892 }}

Publications

{{cite book|isbn=978-1872560182|title=Eczema and Food Allergy: The Hidden Cause? : My Story|last1=Worth|first1=Jennifer|year=2007|publisher=Merton Books }}
Call the Midwife (First book in the Midwife trilogy) {{cite book|isbn=978-0297868781|title=Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End in the 1950s|last1=Worth|first1=Jennifer|date=September 2012|publisher=Orion Publishing Group, Limited }} (2002)
Shadows of the Workhouse (Second book in the Midwife trilogy) {{cite book|isbn=978-0297853268|title=Shadows of the Workhouse|last1=Worth|first1=Jennifer|year=2008|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson }} (2005)
{{cite book|isbn=978-0753823064|title=Farewell to the East End|last1=Worth|first1=Jennifer|year=2009|publisher=Phoenix }} (Third book in the Midwife trilogy)
{{cite book|isbn=978-0297859581|title=In the Midst of Life|last1=Worth|first1=Jennifer|year=2010|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson }}