The Language of Kindness

Critics Review

• 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

  The Sunday Telegraph

• A powerful insight into the life of nurses

  The Times, **Books of the Year**

• 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 … A gently remarkable book… it’s a privilege to have Christie as our guide

  Guardian

• Wonderful

  Sebastian Faulks

• A deeply compassionate book… It will leave you weeping as well as hopeful

  Sunday Times, **Books of the Year**

• An amazing book — terrifying at times, but tender and truthful. Let’s be thankful for wonderful nurses — and writers — like Christie Watson

  Jacqueline Wilson

• Compared with the recent rash of doctor memoirs, this is a far quieter and more thoughtful book

  Guardian, **Books of the Year**

• 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

  The Sunday Times

• A remarkable book about life and death and so brilliantly written it makes you hold your breath

  Ruby Wax

• 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

  Daily Express

• 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

• 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

  The Observer