The Language of Kindness

A Nurse's Story

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Pub Date 3 May 2018 | Archive Date 2 Jun 2018

Description

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

*A Guardian, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, The Times, New Statesman Netgalley and Reading Agency Book of the Year 2018*

An astonishing memoir about nursing and an urgent call for compassion and kindness

‘It made me cry. It made me think. It made me laugh. It encouraged me to appreciate this most underappreciated of professions more than ever’ Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt

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 remarkable book about life and death and so brilliantly written it makes you hold your breath’ Ruby Wax

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

*A Guardian, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, The Times, New Statesman Netgalley and Reading Agency Book of the Year 2018*

An astonishing memoir about nursing and an urgent...


A Note From the Publisher

Christie Watson was a registered nurse for twenty years before writing full time. Her first novel, TINY SUNBIRDS FAR AWAY, won the Costa First Novel Award and her second novel, WHERE WOMEN ARE KINGS, was also published to international critical acclaim. Her works have been translated to fifteen languages. She lives in London.

Christie Watson was a registered nurse for twenty years before writing full time. Her first novel, TINY SUNBIRDS FAR AWAY, won the Costa First Novel Award and her second novel, WHERE WOMEN ARE KINGS...


Advance Praise

'An amazing book - terrifying at times, but tender and truthful.  Let's be thankful for wonderful nurses - and writers - like Christie Watson'
JACQUELINE WILSON

‘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, Costa-award-winning author of The Shock of the Fall and psychiatric nurse.

‘I was enthralled from the start. Nurse’s voices are so rarely heard and Christie is so honest, wise and observant of people that she is just the person to do their story justice. And of course she writes beautifully. The image that stayed with me long after I had put the book down was of the nurse always with the patient, even after everybody else has gone.’
SUZANNE O’SULLIVAN, winner of the Wellcome book prize and author of It’s All in your Head

‘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

'Christie Watson writes with the fullness of her heart to give us insight into the world of patients and nursing, inspiring us to recognise it is how we treat people, how we speak and respond to them, as well as what we do, that heals. It’s message of self-compassion and kindness is as useful for those of us outside the medical world, as in it.'
JULIA SAMUEL, author of Grief Works

‘Moving, eloquent, funny, inspiring - an urgent book for our times." 
SARAH BAKEWELL

 ‘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

‘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 of the Royal College of Nursing 

‘A remarkable book… Absolutely brilliant!"
CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH OBE, human rights lawyer, and Founder, Reprieve

‘A piercingly tender book about kindness, human dignity and equality’
NICKY PARKER, Amnesty International UK

'Christie Watson’s book brings home the incredible strength and determination that nurses working in our critically underfunded NHS must possess – and how wildly underappreciated they are'
RACHAEL JOLLEY, Editor, Index on Censorship

'There is so much love in this book that it makes the tears bearable. Christie Watson has written a beautiful and lyrical account of the true meaning of a nurse's life.'
AMANDA FOREMAN

'An amazing book - terrifying at times, but tender and truthful.  Let's be thankful for wonderful nurses - and writers - like Christie Watson'
JACQUELINE WILSON

‘Christie Watson is a remarkable writer...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781784741976
PRICE £14.99 (GBP)
PAGES 288

Average rating from 69 members


Featured Reviews

A fantastically readable medical memoir which really gets to the heart of nursing. It really shows how underrated nurses are as they give everything to their jobs. Heartbreaking, uplifting and wonderful.

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I have read quite a few healthcare-themed memoirs and found many of them moving but none so much as this, a nurses story which resonated deeply, partly because of my own background in mental health care but also because Watson is a wonderful writer.

The stories of the patients Watson cares for over the years are deeply affecting but what touches the reader the most is the nurse's own story; a story of compassion and caring, technical skills acquired over time and most of all, the tacit knowledge (call it instinct) which sets apart an expert nurse from her more junior colleagues. Watson sensitively weaves in various philosophies and models of nursing, never allowing them to overshadow the everyday nature of much of nursing; they assist the reader in understanding how philosophers can help the nurse to know themselves better, therefore helping their patients. What also stands out is Watson's advocacy for her colleagues and her refusal to allow us to overlook the living, breathing and feeling human inside a pair of scrubs who cries and rails against the unfairness and indignity of the failing human bodies they care for. Nursing is hard and it takes a toll. If you are a good nurse, you will suffer for it.

Nursing skills are about fundamentals, not basics and Watson emphasizes through her insistence that nursing is about kindness, care and compassion, all those things that cannot be easily taught in the classroom, although they should be a lynchpin of both practical and theoretical training. What stands out, especially in the earlier part of the book, is the absolute reality of the practice-theory gap, and how only hard time in practice can bridge it.

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How can I describe this book? It is autobiographical. Christie takes from her fifteen year old typical teenage girl self through a few years of not having a clue what she wants to do, to be, to a sudden decision to become a nurse.
She takes us eloquently through spells on acute mental health wards, surgical rotations, adult medical, intensive care, paediatrics and more. It is not a list. Not 'I did this then I moved to that'.
Christie provides a non linear narrative that works perfectly. She shares every aspect of nursing; from beginning to end; the first birth she attends to the funeral of a child she nursed for months, always knowing he would die.
There are horrors of ECMO machines exploding painting an entire room - and staff - in the total volume of their patient's blood.
She describes regular 2 am buffets where staff caring for the very sickest of babies get ten minutes to eat and drink so they have the energy to work through a pressured shift with barely time for a pee break.
This is not a manual of nursing practices; nor is Christie painting herself and colleagues as angels. It is lovely. It is sad. It is happy. It is real.

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Such a good read that, makes you realise what a tough job that nurses do and sometimes what little praise that they can receive. Well written

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Having recently suffered a berevement, i wasnt sure if this book was right for me.
However, the kindness and devotion from Christie to her patients shines throughout the, yes, somewhat depressingly true stories of the NHS. The writing really flowed and i am now looking into reading her other works.
Thank you for this lovely book.

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This book is amazing! Such great stories told with such compassion, really heartwrenching stuff a lot of the time but the humanity and compassion we are able to have for each other is really brought to life in this book. There are dark sides to it of course, she's a nurse looking after very ill babies - some of them have been abused and its sad but important reading I guess. I didn't really know what to expect from this book but safe to say it exceeded any, please read and I hope its as good for you as it was for me!

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I was given a copy of this book from the book review site NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I myself have worked in nursing for a number of years so i am always interested in books by nurses and I must admit that this is just about the best book I have read in this genre. The book is beautifully written with her discriptions of her time nursing children moving me to tears I feel honoured to share in her experiences of whom i can only discribe as a very remarkable woman and nurse. This is a real must read for nurses and for anyone who wants to read a book written with such compasion and warmth

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