Relief Reads 20 - Shadows of the Workhouse

Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth

Charity Shop: Hope House, Children's Hospice, Ludlow

Charity: Located in the village of Morda near Oswestry, Hope House offers its service for the repsite of terminally ill children, covering Shropshire, North and Mid Wales.

Price: £1.75, almost as expensive as Cambridge book!

Book Blurb: When Jennifer Worth became a midwife in the 1950s, she joined an East End where many lives were touched by the shadow of the workhouse. For, although the institutions were officially abolished in 1930, in reality many did not close until several decades later. // In the follow-up to here bestselling Call the Midwife, Jennifer Worth tells the true stories of the people she met. There's Peggy and Frank, who were seperated in the workhouse when their parents died - until Frank's strength and determination enabled him to make a home for his sister. Jane was a bright, lively child, whose spirit was broken by cruelty, until she found kindness and love later in life. Then there in the matchmaking nun, Sister Julienne, and Sister Monica Joan, who ends up in the High Court...

Expectation: I'm now on the look out for Jennifer Worth books in Charity shops, and was very happy when I found this in Ludlow. I was expecting this to be like Call the Midwife but with stories focussed on the social work of her job rather than the babies.

Reality: Rather than being lots of little stories, this book had only 4 main stories, variants of which had been part of the TV series. It was quite tough to read because although it only focused on a handful of people it was indicative of life for many. You hear in the news now where they are trying to get justice for institutionalised cruelty but if what Jennifer Worth says is true then it was just normal and how do you hold a culture to account? You could say lock up the adults and throw away the key, but many grew up in workhouses and never knew a different life. Anyway the lives she focussed on were not all doom and gloom, as life is never (or rarely). Frank and Peggy had a happy adulthood and were a source of friendship for Jane, who ended up marrying Reverend Appleby-Thornton (as on TV) Then there was the story of Joe Collet, a war veteran who had no remaining family and Jennifer was his only friend. He told her the story of his time in the army, he fought in the Boer war. I've never heard anything about the Boer war before, so this book is really good in that it passes on personal accounts of an event of which there are no living memories. There was also an insight into the trenches that I hadn't come across before. History will repeat itself, but the longer we remember these things the longer the gaps between the repetition will be (although Putin seems to want to hurry things along). Joe's workhouse shadow was that he ended up in an old people's home that was a workhouse in its former life, and the conditions were just appalling. According to personal accounts Jennifer had heard of, conditions were such at least until 1985 if not more recently, what about today?
The  story of Sister Monica Jones was a bit different and had no connection to the Workhouse. She is accused of shoplifting and ends up in court. I'll leave it up to you to read the ending. It was a bit of light relief and does highlight the difficulty of distinguishing between senility and mischieviousness!

Overall Rating

It was a struggle           2        3        4        5        6        7        8       9      Gripping page  

to make it                                                                                                        turner

I would recommend it, as a good read and an important read for keeping history alive. However some parts I wonder how Jennifer could have known what happened. She must have changed some details to hide identities, so I do wonder how much artistic licence she used.

Twist Scale:

Knew the beginning,                                                                                 As twisty as the 

middle and end         2       3        4         5       6        7        8        9      bendy wendy road

from the first line

Not that kind of book, but life's not straightforward so there were some twists and turns.

Tear-jerker Scale:

 As dry as a house       2        3       4         5         6         7       8        9     Cried an ocean

 throughout

Yes there were tears shed. But I wasn't reading in public this time, so socially acceptable tears!

Main Character(s): Jane, Frank, Peggy, Jennifer and Joe.

Moral of the Story: I read this on Saturday and on Sunday evening we sang a song at church that I thought was very apt, particularly verse 2. It addresses the sense of hopelessness there is if you remove God from the picture. Praise God that justice will be done! Anyway here are the words of the song;

O Lord, the clouds are gathering,

The fire of judgement burns;

How we have fallen!

O Lord, you stand appalled to see

Your laws of love so scorned

And lives so broken

O Lord, over the nations now

Where is the dove of peace?

Her wings are broken.

O Lord, while precious children starve

The tools of war increase,

Their bread is stolen

O Lord, dark powers are poised to flood

Our streets with hate and fear.

We must awaken!

O Lord, let love reclaim the lives

That sin would sweep away,

And let your kingdom come.

Yet O Lord, your glorious cross shall tower

Triumphant in this land,

evil confounding;

Through the fire your suffering church displays

The glories of her Christ

Praises resounding.

Have mercy Lord, forgive us Lord

Restore us Lord, revive your church again.

Let justice flow like rivers

And righteousness like a never-failing stream

***

Coming up: I have caught up! It will either be Transition by Ian Banks, but I may have temporarily misplaced it so might be Wormwood by ??? instead.

Also coming up, Walking Wanders - Alwinton