September 9 "Call for a Midwife" Background Introduction 1

Today is very hot, in the morning constantly walking around, unconsciously forehead is covered with beads of sweat, intimate colleagues handed over paper towels, wiped away the sweat on the forehead, but the clothes under the overalls were already sweaty. Autumn tiger, it will be murderous for another month.

Today is still not to the main text, first through this "introduction" to understand the background of the story.

INTRODUCTION

Nonnatus House was situated in the heart of the London Dock-lands. The practice covered Stepney, Limehouse, Millwall, the Isle of Dogs, Cubitt Town, Poplar, Bow, Mile End and Whitechapel. The area was densely populated and most families had lived there for generations, often not moving more than a street or two away from their birthplace. Family life was lived at close quarters and children were brought up by a widely extended family of aunts, grandparents, cousins and older siblings, all living within a few houses, or at the most, streets of each other. Children would run in and out of each other's homes all the time and when I lived and worked there, I cannot remember a door ever being locked, except at night.

Children were everywhere, and the streets were their play- grounds. In the 1950s there were no cars in the back streets, because no one had a car, so it was perfectly safe to play there. There was heavy industrial traffic on the main roads, particularly those leading to and from the docks, but the little streets were traffic-free.

No new words [cute] read two paragraphs every night and review them once a week. Wow, I don't know how long it will take to finish this three-hundred-plus-page book [thinking]