This paperback was left at the Cameo Cafe during the pandemic. It tells the story of the author's life as a midwife in the 1950's in London's East End. She worked in conjunction with the sisters at a convent. (I have decided not to leave the book on the Cameo bookshelf due to its very graphic sexual content in one place. The Cameo cafe is run at a centre belonging to the Salvation Army and I was asked to remove another book some time ago for a similar reason. I'm obviously not required to read every book before it's displayed but I do my best not to offend anyone if I can help it.)
REVIEW:-I enjoyed this book in general and found the historical aspects of it very interesting. It was shocking to learn of how long it took for the powers that be to realise the cause of rickets and to learn of how terribly it affected people who developed it. Some of the accounts of births and pregnant mothers I found to be very "twee" which contrasted shockingly with the very graphic description of the goings on at a "cafe" beneath a brothel, so the book had many shades. I was also shocked at the fact that "obstetricians doubted whether women had the mental capacity to cope with childbirth and understand the anatomy involved". I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed with the author's attitude towards one of the Nuns who obviously had dementia and she was also very disparaging and rude about a man who had a very bad squint.
The description of the workhouse sounded not much better than a concentration camp and I was ashamed and shocked to learn of how badly we treated the poor people who ended up there, often through no fault of their own.
Another thing that surprised me was when the author was happy to eat pasta cooked in a boiler that had had nappies washed in it earlier in the day! Also, she doesn't know the difference between hay and straw." I probably won't look for further titles by this author."

This book was left in the Brampton phone box library.

To the finder:-
Welcome to bookcrossing -you have found a travelling book. Please make a journal entry now to say where you found the book in case it has been moved. Then, when you have read it, please come back and make a further entry saying whether or not you enjoyed the book and why. It is now yours to do as you like with it, pass it to a friend or just leave it somewhere different for someone else to find and help it with its' journey. Of course if you can't bear to part with it at the moment then keep it, but please let me know that you have found it. If you join bookcrossing, which is free and spam-free, you can follow the book on its' travels as you will get an email each time it changes hands, but if you prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine too. Please also say what you intend to do with the book next. Thanks for coming onto the site to let me know you have found the book.

I already have books travelling in many countries around the world-a list can be found on my bookcrossing profile.

When re-releasing this book please be aware that airports are not a good place to leave books unless they have a specific book exchange shelf or area, due to security problems, so they may well just be disposed of. Also charity shops may well discard books that have been labelled in any way and they mostly chose only the books in the very best condition
to place on their shelves and discard the rest-so another bad release option.

Picked up in a swap at the telephone box book exchange in Brampton, Norfolk.

On the Official BookCrossing Zone shelf.