Main description:

If you liked Call the Midwife, you will love Kicking the Habit! What makes a fun-loving teenager turn her back on a life of parties, boys and fun, to become a nun in a French convent? And what later leads her to abandon the religious life, to return to the big wide world and later marry? At the age of 18, Eleanor Stewart goes to France to enter a convent. After four years of struggling with the religious life, she becomes a nun, and then trains as a midwife in a large inner-city hospital in Liverpool. While Beatlemania grips the nation, she attempts to coordinate the reclusive demands of the religious life with the drama, excitement and occasional tragedy of the hospital world. Written with honesty and affection, this is a wonderful and intimate portrait of convent and hospital life.

Contents:

Contents
Ack nowledgments 7
PART 1: Entry 9
1 A n Ordinary Girl 11
2 The Furies at the Door 18
3 A Very Big Decision 24
4 First Impressions 29
5 Black Pudding 35
6 A Real Beginning 38
7 Le arning the Ropes 42
8 Secrets and Mysteries 52
9 House Training 58
PART 2: Noviciate 71
10 "Taking the Veil" 73
11 A Novice's Life for Me! 81
12 So Much to Learn, to Love, and to Understand 88
13 Music and a Pink Corset 96
14 Holiday Time 101
15 Crisis 111
16 Death and Sister Pauline 120
17 The Turkey Experience 126
18 A "Hustings" and the delights of Literature 132
19 A Sawdust Carpet and a private Epiphany 138
PART 3: Profession 149
20 St Julien's School, Le Mans 151
21 W retchedness in romiley 158
22 A Happy house and a Change of Direction 164
23 Broadgreen, Val Doonican, and Other Oddities 170
24 Re newal of Vows and "Night Duty" 179
25 A New Broom and Family Worries 188
26 The Burns Unit and a Child Called David 197
27 Gh astly Gynae! 203
28 More Night-time Drama and that "Lovin' Feeling" 209
29 Midwifery, Three-Year Vows and Uncertainty 218
30 The "Leaving of Liverpool" 229
Glossary 237