We’d stand in a queue and it would take him quite a long time to make each one, so you’d get more and more excited. I would say there is more anxiety attending childbirth these days; more caesarian sections, more inductions, more drugs, more drips, more medicine in other words. The autumn 2012 PBS broadcast of the first series received widespread critical acclaim, earning a Metacritic score of 8. To make the birthing scenes as realistic as possible, the show employs a trained midwife to help out the actors. The adaptation, which has also retained the original title, first run on BBC One; moreover, the TV show first aired on January 2012.

The sisters – “two very different little girls with a shared sense of fun and a strong bond” – pulled on some of the skates, clung to each other and tried to move around the rink. Having originally been smitten with this wonderful British TV series, I am now head over heels in love with the book. You are told astounding stories about the author's years working as a midwife at the Nonnatus House Convent in the Docklands during the 1950s. After accompanying the abrupt and seemingly humorless nun on her rounds, Worth discovers that the sister is a war heroine who is beloved by her patients for her scatological tales and ability to emit a fart of Chaucerian proportions. Jessica Raine was terribly anxious that we should be happy with her performance and I think she’s got it just right.

She started working as a nurse in 1950 and left nursing in 1973, in a bid to follow her musical ambitions.

Christine explains: “It was during the writing of this book that my daughter told me of much that she and Jennifer had shared, and so I finally came to learn the painful truth. Having given birth with the support of a midwife three times, when I heard about this one, I knew I had to make time to read it.Some aspects of love—maternal, paternal, filial, fraternal, sisterly, romantic, or the love of friends—are explored in every episode. The Child Migrants Programme, the threat of nuclear warfare (including emergency response guidelines issued by local Civil Defence Corps), LGBT rights, and syphilis among sex workers are addressed in 1960-set fourth series, with a patient with typhoid, the effects of thalidomide, the introduction of the contraceptive pill and impact of stroke in the fifth set in 1961. The first series, set in early 1957, tackles the "Baby Boom", issues of poverty in the East End and post-war immigration. Though her decision disheartens the nuns and her fellow midwives, everyone understands it's the best choice for her to make and supports her. Record number of delegates head to biggest ever BBC Worldwide Showcase in Liverpool to celebrate a significant anniversary: Notes to Editor".

The voices of much loved, familiar characters spoke loud and clear, particularly that of Fred the boiler man, who features extensively in this joyful collection.

Wrong not least in literary terms, for Worth's powers of description, authenticity of detail and richness of characterisation evoke from the start an unforgettable milieu – Poplar and the London docklands of the mid to late 1950s – to which I and clearly many thousands of other readers willingly and completely surrendered. Worth wrote the book after retiring from a subsequent career as a musician, and it was originally published in July 2002. In 1974, she was appointed a licentiate of the London College of Music, where she taught piano and singing.