#252 Win copies of the Sunday Times bestsellers The Language of Kindness and The Courage to Care by author and former nurse Christie Watson

Win two wonderful books from former nurse, medical professional and acclaimed writer Christie Watson: The Language of Kindness and The Courage to Care.

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.

Praise for Christie 

'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

"With grit and wisdom, this memoir of life as a nurse encompasses birth, death, and the unpredictable workings of minds and bodies in between. . . . Watson, who worked in British hospitals for twenty years before becoming a novelist, recounts the crises, triumphs, and uncertainties inherent in nursing others." --The New Yorker

"I challenge anyone to get through all 336 pages without weeping. . . . Expect Watson's stories of patients like Tommy and Katie to linger with you many days after the final chapter." --The Sunday Times

"Powerful. . . . An absorbing, all-seeing tour through the doors of the hospital." --Molly Case, The Observer

"Christie Watson is a lovely writer--and, judging from this book, a gifted nurse. --The New York Times

"Tender and beautifully written. . . . A love letter to a profession whose values are threatened." --The Daily Telegraph

Christie Watson is an inspiration. This book is breath-taking. --Emilia Clarke

About the author:

Christie Watson is a writer and Professor of Medical and Health Humanities. She is Patron of the Royal College of Nursing Foundation.
Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, won the Costa First Novel Award and along with her second novel, Where Women Are Kings, was widely translated and achieved international critical acclaim. The Language of Kindness, published in 2018, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller and Book of the Year in the Evening Standard, Guardian, i, New Statesman, the Sunday Times and The Times. It has been translated into 23 languages, and adapted for theatre, with a UK tour beginning in 2021.