Awards

• Short-listed for IBW Book Award 2019 (UK)

Overview

The Sunday Times bestselling memoir about nursing and an urgent call for compassion and kindness Read Costa Award-winning author Christie Watson's incredible No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling memoir of nursing today. 'It made me cry. It made me think. It made me laugh' Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt and Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas 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. 'A powerful insight into the life of nurses' The Times, Books of the Year 'A remarkable book about life and death and so brilliantly written it makes you hold your breath' Ruby Wax

Full Product Details

9781784706883

Table of Contents

Reviews

If it's taken a very long time to get a memoir written by a nurse, then it was certainly worth the wait. I have rarely read anything that has moved me as much or taken me by the hand so confidently into an unknown world, teeming with life and haunted by death... A remarkable book that I will be pressing on everyone I love... In both her nursing and her writing Watson achieves what we might otherwise call a state of grace.... A special book, then, and, as the NHS turns 70, an important guide to what a healthy society should value -- Allison Pearson * The Sunday Telegraph * An amazing book -- terrifying at times, but tender and truthful. Let's be thankful for wonderful nurses -- and writers -- like Christie Watson -- Jacqueline Wilson I challenge anyone to get through all 336 pages without shedding a tear for what those who work in the most undervalued of all professions have to witness ... Expect her stories [...] to linger with you many days after the final chapter -- Jackie Annesley * The Sunday Times * A poignant and powerful account of what it's like to be a nurse. It's a profession that touches all our lives delivering expert and compassionate care from the cradle to the grave. A must-read for nurses and those interested in understanding the true art and science of nursing -- Professor Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer for England Lyrical, moving ... Watson tackles grisly deaths and eccentric patients, but also the importance of comfort and empathy in nursing with engrossing results ... A nurse's voice has never really been heard before on this scale. Now's the time for it to ring out loud * Stylist * A wise and tender book, by turns fierce, compassionate, and revelatory. It shows the joys and the difficulties of looking after people at their most vulnerable, and makes an urgent plea: as a society we have to care better for the nurses who care for us -- Dr Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being A touching and thought-provoking memoir that makes an impassioned plea for the appreciation of the nursing profession ... [Watson] is an elegant, eloquent writer who brings an immediacy to her work. You are right there beside her all the way as she provides a fascinating insight into the trials and triumphs of life in an NHS hospital ... A rallying call for kindness and compassion that every one of us should embrace -- Mernie Gilmore * Daily Express * It is very hard to describe the essence of nursing but Christie's story captures it. Through her powerful writing the true value of the nurse becomes clear -- Janet Davies, Chief Executive and General Secretary, Royal College of Nursing Through Watson, we are taken on an absorbing, all-seeing tour through the doors of the hospital ... In Watson's honest memoir, we are reminded that we are all made from the same fibres and are all in this together, exploring the human condition and learning the language of kindness -- Molly Case * The Observer * Christie Watson is a remarkable writer turning her attention to a crucially important conversation. This book is eloquent, moving and searingly relevant to all of us -- Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall Remarkable, unforgettable... This page-turning account of how nurses routinely dig deep into their souls to dispense care and compassion in increasingly challenging conditions also packs a massive emotional punch... A remarkable reflection on care, empathy and compassion -- Caroline Sanderson * Sunday Express * This beautiful memoir - tender, informative, unflinching, every sentence filled with compassion - has reminded me that when I have felt most alone I am, of course, not alone at all -- Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry An eye-opener ... written with real tenderness * Good Housekeeping * There's one woman who is particularly inspiring me right now.... Christie Watson, who wrote this book called The Language of Kindness... She was an NHS nurse and it is an autobiographical book and it is absolutely breath-taking and it is incredibly affecting and I think it highlights the need for us to be helping nurses where we can. She just is an incredibly strong woman -- Emilia Clarke A highly intelligent writer bringing all her narrative skills to bear on a profession in which she spent 20 years ... what emerges time and again is that nursing is about so much more than medicine ... Christie Watson is a wonderful writer. But I can't help thinking she was an even better nurse -- Melanie McDonagh * Evening Standard *

Author Information

Christie Watson's first novel, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, won the Costa First Novel Award; her second, Where Women Are Kings, achieved international critical acclaim; and her nursing memoir, The Language of Kindness, was a number one bestseller. In 2020, during the first peak of the pandemic, she published The Courage to Care and briefly returned to clinical work. Christie was shocked not only by the changing world, but her changing body, as her perimenopause took hold. Quilt on Fire, her fifth book, is the funny, honest and liberating account of her midlife journey.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available