Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth

This is the follow-up to Jennifer Worth's best selling book "Call the Midwife".  If you a fallen in love with the TV show, this book will be a very enjoyable read. Even if you have never seen "Call the Midwife", "Shadow of the Workhouse " stands alone as an excellent vision of life in the 1950s in the poor area of London known as "Poplar". 

Jennifer Leigh is working as a midwife in Poplar, London and is based at Nonnatus House with the Sisters of St Raymond Nonnatus an Anglican order. This is a pseudonym for the real name of the sisters and the house. She spends some time talking about those she works with Sr. Monica Joan, Sr Julienne, St Evangelina, Trixie and Chummy. The workhouse affected the lives of many people she touches. 

Workhouses were part of life in England for more than 100 years. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 was written to make sure that the poor could not get relief unless they went to live in the workhouses that were set up. They were segregated by sex and families were separated. They were required to work to get the meager food and scant accommodations. People would rather die in the street than go to a workhouse and many did. 

Rules in the workhouses were harsh and it created a dependent population who were ill-equipped to survive in the outside world. Jennifer introduces us to some of the victims of this system and how they managed in the world of East-end London after the workhouses closed. 

If you remember Jens relationship with Mr. Collett from "Call the Midwife" you will delight in the wonderful details that we get in last third of the book called The Old Soldier. Part II deals with Sr Monica Joan and her brush with the law. 

I absolutely loved this book and it kept me very engaged throughout. I went so far as to order two more of her books.