Author Christie Watson, Patron of the RCN Foundation
Christie was a registered paediatric nurse for 20 years before becoming a full-time writer. She worked in paediatric intensive care before becoming a resuscitation officer, which involved teaching and clinical work on hospital-wide crash teams.
Her first novel Tiny Sunbirds Far Away won the Costa First Novel Award. Her second novel Where Women Are Kings received international acclaim. Christie has since released her autobiographical account of her time as a nurse, titled The Language of Kindness: A Nurse’s Story. It has been hailed as one of the best clinical memoirs in recent years. The book is a Sunday Times Number 1 bestseller and was a BBC Radio 4 book of the week.
Her latest release, Moral Injuries, is a psychological drama that asks how far will you go to save your own, when you're trained to save the lives of others. It was chosen for The Sunday Times Pick of the Month.
Christie was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, for her contribution to nursing and the arts by the University of East Anglia.