Christie Watson

'Thrilling . . . I adored every single second' YOMI ADEGOKE'Incredibly funny, brilliantly disturbing, filled with humanity' JOANNA CANNON 'A nifty, twisty crime story of surgical precision' SEBASTIAN FAULKSUnexpected deaths and untoward incidents are becoming alarmingly frequent at City Hospital's Emergency Department. A&E Senior Sister, Aoife, begins to question whether her new nurses are incompetent - or worse. Earnest recruit Eden cares deeply for her patients and carries the Code of Conduct around in her pocket, reporting everyone whose views don't align with hers. But despite her self-righteousness, Eden keeps making mistakes. Is she dangerous? It is Sophie who worries Aoife the most. Acerbic, over-confident and seemingly lacking in empathy, how Sophie ever became a nurse is beyond her. When Sophie begins an affair with Aoife's best friend, Michael, a man twenty-five years her senior, tensions escalate further, threatening to eclipse the fact that lives are at stake. Aoife is the nurse we'd all want. Compassionate to the core. She's the nicest, kindest nurse in the world. Until she is tested to the limit . . . Fearless, fast-paced and darkly funny, Killing Me Softly is a jaw-dropping novel about the hidden extremes of nursing and three complex women who hold the lives of their patients - and each other - in their hands.

''Compulsively readable'' SUNDAY TIMES''A superior medical thriller'' GUARDIAN''Darkly gripping'' OBSERVERYou''re trained to save the lives of others. But how far would you go to save your own?Olivia, Laura and Anjali couldn''t be more different. Inseparable since the first day of medical school, their bond has remained unbreakable. Years ago, they promised nothing would come between them - including the wild university party that forced them to make a deadly choice.Now working as doctors in high-pressure jobs, with lives and families of their own, their secret binds them tighter still. But when an eerily similar tragedy affects their teenage children, the choice the three women face may not be one their friendship can survive . . .

How can we communicate when things are so painful? How can we connect when generational differences are extreme? How do parents and teenagers - and all of us - have real conversations? When Rowan was sixteen, she only tolerated communication from her mother in the form of Snapchat. Desperate to be closer to her daughter, Christie sent daily selfies of her face superimposed onto a chicken nugget. It took serious illness for them to finally talk – and truly listen. Rowan's mental health struggles revealed the chasm between their generations. They started being more honest with each other than they had ever been before: discussing identity, race, gender and neurodivergence; opening up about disordered eating and self-harm; navigating the perils of social media. In an age of polarisation, this is how a mother and daughter find humour in the things that divide them and become more hopeful about the future of our world. A book for all parents and teenagers going through a tough time, for friends, grandparents, teachers and healthcare professionals who want to help, its bare honesty will have you laughing – and possibly crying – out loud as it shows that you are not alone.

A vital and timely book about inspirational nurses, and the bravery of patients and families, from the bestselling author of The Language of Kindness. Nurses have never been more important. 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. Praise for Christie Watson:'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' Nathan Filer'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' Julia Samuel

`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.

"Egy rendkívüli könyv életről és halálról, olyan ragyogóan megírva, hogy az embernek eláll a lélegzete." Ruby Wax Jöjjenek velem a kórtermekbe, legyenek tanúi születésnek és halálnak. Elhaladunk a koraszülöttosztály, majd a kórtermek dupla ajtaja előtt; végigsietünk a folyosón, közben újraélesztünk egy beteget, aztán tovább a gyógyszertár és a személyzeti konyha mellett, egyenesen a baleseti és sürgősségi osztályra. [...] Útközben sok emberrel fogunk találkozni: betegekkel, rokonokkal, kórházi személyzettel - akiket talán már ismernek is. Hisz életünk során mindannyian szorultunk már ápolásra. És ápolók vagyunk mindannyian. "Rémisztő, ugyanakkor gyengéd, de mélységesen igaz." Jacqueline Wilson