“My mother was independent, free-spirited and very strong willed. But above all, she is a hard act to follow,” says Suzannah Hart, daughter of the bestselling author, Jennifer Worth, who wrote the Call The Midwife series. And to celebrate her works, the 51-year-old will be giving a talk about her mother’s life and writing at Watford’s first literary festival - Big Word Fest - which runs from March 8 to April 23.

Call the Midwife was first published 2002, the first in a series of books detailing Jennifer’s time as a midwife in the East End. Suzannah, who lives in Hemel Hempstead, says she must have spent at least a year writing it.

“It was triggered by an article she had read in the Midwifery Journal, by Terri Coates about literature on the subject and it was just one line in the article that caught my mum’s attention, which was: ‘Would the James Herriot of midwifery please step forward’. That was all that was needed to trigger her memories,” she explains.

The popular books were adapted for a BBC One TV drama of the same name, now in its fifth season, and Suzannah says that her mother was “pleasantly surprised” when she was approached about adapting them.

“My mother was never one for over-reacting,” she adds, “she hadn’t even expected that her series of books would be adapted.”

Unfortunately, Jennifer never saw the TV series. She was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in March 2011 and passed away in May that same year.

“We cared for her at home as that is how she wanted it to be. She didn’t want intervention or treatment, she just wanted nature to take its course. Her funeral took place just one week before they started filming the series.

“We visited the set a number of times while the filming was going on and when it finally came on air... it’s almost impossible to describe the feeling, it was an absolute thrill. It kept her memory alive for us.

“I think she would have been delighted,” Suzannah goes on to say, “but most importantly she would have been pleased with the way they kept the spirit of her work running throughout the TV series. I think that the actress who played my mother - Jessica Raine - did a really good job. As none of us really knew what she was like back then so I think Jessica did a marvellous job of portraying her.”

Jennifer died aged 75 and following her death, her family found manuscripts.

“My mother did have more books in her that was certainly the case,” says Suzannah, “We have manuscripts but I don’t think any of them are likely to go into print – they are not complete. There were three chapters that she wrote, which weren’t printed in any of her books at the time, but have been subsequently printed in Letters to the Midwife.”

The library assistant at Hemel Hempstead library confesses that following the publication of her mother’s work the only thing she has ever been inspired to write was the introduction to Letters to the Midwife, which she did with her father and sister.

Suzannah describes her mother as being an “extraordinary” woman, who sometimes had “little regard for the rules”. Her favourite memory was when she was around seven years old: “My mum took me and my younger sister, Juliette, on a bike ride on a lovely sunny afternoon when we should have been at school,” she laughs. “But she was a loving and caring person, who was very concerned about us being independent girls. She sent us off on an inter-rail holiday travelling across Europe at the ages of 16 and 17.

“She was also passionate about music and made sure we had a musical upbringing,” Suzannah adds. “When my mum left the East End, she became a nurse and in our early childhood she used to work one night a week at a hospital in Chesham. She retired in 1973 and then taught music - piano and singing - for 25 years. She gave both me and my sister piano lessons, although she soon gave up on me as I was hopeless. But my sister, she was an extremely good pianist and once she reached a certain level, my mother had to find another piano teacher for her.

“She truly was an amazing person and as I said a hard act to follow. We still continue to watch Call the Midwife and we are pleased as we were when it first came out.”

Suzannah Hart will be talking about the much loved TV drama and where it all started at North Watford Library on March 24, 2.30pm. Details: 01707 281533, hertsdirect.org/libraryeventtickets

For a full list of events at Big Word Fest click here.