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Christie Watson

Author

Esteemed Author, Former Nurse, and Advocate for Kindness in Healthcare

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About

Gender: Female

Nationality: United Kingdom

Languages: English

Travels from: United Kingdom

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Websites

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Biography Highlights

Award-Winning Author: Debut novel Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away won the Costa First Novel Award.
Bestselling Non-Fiction: The Language of Kindness became a number one Sunday Times Bestseller, with adaptations for theatre and TV in progress.
Nursing Advocate: Patron of the Royal College of Nursing Foundation, dedicated to advancing the profession.

Biography

Meet Christie Watson

Christie Watson is an esteemed British author and former nurse whose profound experiences in healthcare have shaped her into a powerful advocate for kindness, empathy, and the human side of medicine. With over 20 years of experience in pediatric intensive care and as a resuscitation officer, Christie’s insights into the complexities of healthcare have informed both her writing and her public speaking, making her a respected voice in both the literary and medical communities.

Christie’s literary career began with a bang when her debut novel, Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away, won the prestigious Costa First Novel Award. This compelling story showcased her ability to weave narrative and emotion, capturing the hearts of readers and critics alike. However, it was her non-fiction work, The Language of Kindness: A Nurse’s Story, that truly cemented her status as a leading author. This deeply moving account of her time in nursing became a number one Sunday Times Bestseller and is currently being adapted for both theatre and television, further extending its impact.

In addition to her success as an author, Christie holds an honorary Doctor of Letters in recognition of her significant contributions to both nursing and the arts. She also serves as a Professor of Medical Humanities at the University of East Anglia (UEA), where she helps bridge the gap between medicine and the humanities, fostering a deeper understanding of the human experience in healthcare. Her academic role underscores her commitment to integrating compassion into the fabric of medical practice.

Christie’s influence extends beyond the classroom and the page. As a Patron of the Royal College of Nursing Foundation, she advocates for the advancement and support of the nursing profession. Her work emphasizes the importance of kindness and empathy in patient care, values that she believes are essential to the healthcare system.

As a speaker, Christie Watson is known for her eloquent and heartfelt discussions on the intersection of healthcare and humanity. She speaks passionately about the power of kindness in medicine, the challenges and rewards of nursing, and the critical role that storytelling plays in healing and understanding. Her talks resonate with a wide range of audiences, from healthcare professionals to those simply interested in the stories that shape our lives.

Christie Watson’s career is a testament to the profound impact that one person can have in both literature and healthcare. Through her writing, teaching, and advocacy, she continues to inspire a greater appreciation for the essential human qualities that lie at the heart of medicine.

Videos

Speaking videos

Media, podcast appearances and interviews

Books

Moral Injuries

You’re trained to save the lives of others. How far would you go to protect your own? Ruthlessly ambitious Olivia, anxious perfectionist Laura and free-spirited risk-taker Anjali couldn’t be more different. Yet their friendship, which began on the first day of medical school, has kept them inseparable for twenty-five years. As wild all-nighters and exam pressures gave way to the struggles and joys of new motherhood and intense jobs, their bond remained unbreakable. Years ago they promised that nothing would come between them and that they’d do anything for one another, including burying one night they have never spoken about: a drug-fuelled university party that forced them to make a deadly choice that could still destroy them. When an eerily similar tragedy strikes involving their teenage children, everything the three women have built threatens to shatter around them. And they are left asking: just how far can you stretch a friendship before it snaps?

The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story

Christie Watson was a nurse for twenty years. Taking us from birth to death and from A&E to the mortuary, The Language of Kindness is an astounding account of a profession defined by acts of care, compassion and kindness. We watch Christie as she nurses a premature baby who has miraculously made it through the night, we stand by her side during her patient’s agonising heart-lung transplant, and we hold our breath as she washes the hair of a child fatally injured in a fire, attempting to remove the toxic smell of smoke before the grieving family arrive. In our most extreme moments, when life is lived most intensely, Christie is with us. She is a guide, mentor and friend. And in these dark days of division and isolationism, she encourages us all to stretch out a hand.

Tiny Sunbirds Far Away

WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD, BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LANGUAGE OF KINDNESS AND THE COURAGE TO CARE ‘Everything changed after Mama found Father lying on top of another woman.’ Blessing and her brother Ezikiel adore their larger-than-life father, their glamorous mother and their comfortable life in Lagos. But all that changes when their father leaves them for another woman. Their mother is fired from her job at the Royal Imperial Hotel – only married women can work there – and soon they have to quit their air-conditioned apartment to go and live with their grandparents in a compound in the Niger Delta. Adapting to life with a poor countryside family is a shock beyond measure after their privileged upbringing in Lagos. Told in Blessing’s own beguiling voice, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away shows how some families can survive almost anything. At times hilarious, always poignant, occasionally tragic, it is peopled with characters you will never forget.

The Courage to Care: A Call for Compassion

We benefit from their expertise in our hospitals and beyond: in our schools, on our streets, in prisons, hospices and care homes. When we feel most alone, nurses remind us that we are not alone at all. In The Courage to Care bestselling author Christie Watson reveals the remarkable extent of nurses’ work: – A community mental-health nurse choreographs support for a man suffering from severe depression – A teen with stab wounds is treated by the critical-care team; his school nurse visits and he drops the bravado – A pregnant woman loses frightening amounts of blood following a car accident; it is a military nurse who synchronises the emergency department into immaculate order and focus. Christie makes a further discovery: that, time and again, it is patients and their families – including her own – who show exceptional strength in the most challenging times. We are all deserving of compassion, and as we share in each other’s suffering, Christie Watson shows us how we can find courage too. The courage to care.

Where Women are Kings

A story of family, adoption, belonging and love from the Costa-winning author of Tiny Sunbirds Far Away and the bestselling nursing memoirs, The Language of Kindness and The Courage to Care Elijah, seven years old, is covered in scars and has a history of disruptive behaviour. His adoptive mother Nikki believes that she and her husband Obi are strong enough to accept his difficulties – and that being white will not affect her ability to raise a black son. Elijah’s birth mother Deborah loves her son like the world has never known. Elijah thinks it’s his fault they can’t be together. Each of them faces more challenges than they could have dreamed, but just as Elijah starts to settle in, a shocking event rocks their fragile peace and the result is devastating.

Quilt on Fire: The Messy Magic of Friends, Sex & Love

Am I a terrible mother? Is the world ending? Did I turn the oven off? Did I pay the parking fine? Is my TV licence up to date? Will I go to prison? Who will take care of the children? This is the story of Christie Watson’s journey through midlife. The joy of letting go and the pain of the morning after, the unstoppable power of female friendship and the struggle to raise teenagers as a single parent. It lays bare the exhilaration, agony, wonder and fears of being a middle-aged woman with a wild heart, a changing body and a new set of challenges. And as her world takes on a different shape, there’s something else she starts to feel: the hot flush of possibility…

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