THE MIDWIFE ’ S SISTER . by Christine Lee . ( Pan £7.99 ) Within the very sentimental world of Sunday night television , Call The Midwife ’ s heroine , Jenny Lee , was played with gentle reserve by actress Jessica Raine . Call The Midwife ’ s heroine , Jenny Lee ( left ) , is based on a real person . But a startling new memoir by the sister of the midwife on whom the character is based suggests the real Jenny Lee was a more fiery and difficult character . The young Jenny actually came to midwifery after being dismissed from her nursing course at the Royal Berkshire Hospital for losing her temper and smacking a small child . Then only months away from qualifying , the consultants pinned her near-perfect exam papers up on the notice board as an example to others . But she was deeply in love with a much older married man at the time , and Christine Lee now believes that her sister ’ s romantic frustrations were the cause of her angry outbursts . Reading the details of the sisters ’ childhood , it ’ s obvious that Jenny had cause for anger long before her married lover refused to leave his wife . Jennifer was born in 1936 , the daughter of a Post Office clerk called Elsie — a woman with ‘ bedroom eyes , fabulous hour-glass figure and great legs ’ — and a handsome chancer , Gordon Lee , who had whisked Elsie away on his milk float from the dance at which they met . Christine came along in 1939 as Gordon built up a successful haulage business . The first seven years of Christine ’ s life were idyllic — she had parents who laughed and holiday adventures on the Essex coast with her fearless older sister . Their mother flirted her way to extra luxuries during rationing . But everything changed one summer day in 1945 , when Elsie came home to find her husband in bed with his secretary , Judith . Elsie had a stroke . Divorce followed . The girls were sent to a convent school run by nuns whose metal rulers left savage , red weals on dyslexic Christine ’ s hands as she struggled to write . Jennifer kicked back at her tormentors and got the pair expelled . Meanwhile , Gordon married Judith and the wealthy couple moved to a luxurious country home — except for the room set aside for his two girls . That boasted bare boards , a bare lightbulb and one camp bed . The real Jenny Lee ( played in the BBC series by Jessica Raine , second right ) ended up in midwifery after being dismissed from her nursing course at the Royal Berkshire Hospital for losing her temper . Elsie went on to marry a violent bully called Jock , who demanded the girls be out of his sight when he came home from work at 5pm . By this point , Christine claims , Jennifer had become quite violent , sometimes ‘ grabbing me by the hair and repeatedly banging my head against the wall ’ . On one occasion , her older sister chased her around the house with a carving knife . Christine had done nothing to provoke the attacks — ‘ her fury was all to do with the collapse of home life ’ . That collapse became total when 14-year-old Jennifer accidentally stayed downstairs playing the piano after the 5 pm curfew . Jock slammed the piano lid onto her fingers and she was thrown out of the house the next morning . A year later , she lied about her age and got a job as secretary to a headmaster her mother would come to call ‘ Neville the Devil ’ . Jennifer fell in love with him and there was a local scandal . He was the one who eventually insisted she move away to begin a career in nursing . Jennifer adored the profession , but while her sister studied , Christine preferred to party . Marriage to an ambitious doctor seemed an easy way out , but when she needed spinal surgery shortly after the birth of her first daughter , she realised her husband was straying . She would go on to marry four times and have two more children , while Jennifer settled for a marriage with good friend Phillip Worth and had two daughters . Neville remained the love of her life . Both girls moved into the arts after having their children . While Jennifer built a career as a concert pianist then a writer , Christine became a sculptor . But they grew apart . Christine married into money , which Jennifer resented . And Jennifer ’ s experience working with the nuns of Poplar led her to become religious in a way that alienated her from Christine , who felt shut out by her sister ’ s reliable response of ‘ Go with God ’ to any dilemma . Christine felt she used it to justify a lack of engagement with other people ’ s problems . But Christine says she found peace with her ‘ fierce , no-nonsense , brisk and kind ’ sister at the end . Beneath the large ‘ DO NOT RESUSCITATE ’ notice pinned over the bed in which she died from cancer in 2011 , Jennifer finally relaxed and talked openly with Christine for the first time in decades . The following year , Christine celebrated their enduring bond in an 8 ft sculpture for Exeter Cathedral — two angels , strong and loving , with a narrow but unbreachable space between them .
Jenny Lee's Lee's life was turned upside down when her parents divorced . She became violent after her mother married a bully called Jock . She turned to midwifery after being dismissed from a nursing course . Jenny Lee's later moved into the creative and became a concert pianist .