Christie Watson (born 1976) is a British writer and retired nurse. Her first novel, ''Tiny Sunbirds Far Away'', won the Costa First Novel Award in the

2011 Costa Book Awards The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

. Her second novel ''Where Women Are Kings'' also won critical praise.

Early life and education

Born in

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

, she left school at the age of 16 and after volunteering for a year at

Scope Scope or scopes may refer to: People with the surname * Jamie Scope (born 1986), English footballer * John T. Scopes (1900–1970), central figure in the Scopes Trial regarding the teaching of evolution Arts, media, and entertainment * Cinem ...

(then the Spastics Society) went into nursing. She trained at

Great Ormond Street Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital ...

."Christie Watson — About the Author"
Foyles.Nina Lakhani

''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 23 January 2012.

Career

Watson worked for approximately 20 years as a nurse, but retired to concentrate on writing after a period of combining the two professions.

Nursing

Her nursing career included

, St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, and Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital."Christie Watson's novel out of Africa"
''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', 29 November 2011.]

Writing

She won the Malcolm Bradbury Bursary, which enabled her to take an MA in creative writing at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

, from where she graduated in 2009. Her first novel, ''Tiny Sunbirds Far Away'', won the Costa First Novel Award in the

. Her second novel, ''Where Women Are Kings'' (2014), also won critical praise and has been widely translated. In 2018 she published a memoir, ''The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story'', which was broadcast as the "

Book of the Week ''Book of the Week'' is a BBC Radio 4 series that is broadcast daily on week days. Each week, extracts from the selected book, usually a non-fiction work, are read over five episodes; each fifteen-minute episode is broadcast in the morning (9:45a ...

" on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

in May 2018.Molly Case
"The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story'' by Christie Watson – review"
''The Observer'', 29 April 2018."The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story"
''Book of the Week'', BBC Radio 4, May 2018. It was named as a Book of the Year in 2018 by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'', Netgalley and Reading Agency.

Private life

Watson lives in London with her two children. She met her

paediatrician Pediatrics (American and British English differences, also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, Adolescence, adolescents, and young adults. In the United King ...

partner when they were both working at St Mary's Hospital in west London.

Bibliography

* ''Tiny Sunbirds Far Away'', Quercus, 2011. * ''Where Women are Kings'', Quercus, 2014. * ''Here I Stand'', Walker Books, 2016. * ''The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story'', 3 May 2018. * “The Courage to Care : nurses, families and hope”, 2020

References

External links

Official website

''

'', 29 November 2011.
"Christie Watson, the Costa-nominated writer who can't give up nursing"
''The Telegraph'', 20 November 2011.
"The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story"
BBC Radio 4, ''Book of the Week'', May 2018, {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Christie 1976 births Living people Alumni of the University of East Anglia Costa Book Award winners British writers People from Stevenage Date of birth missing (living people)