The Courage to Care

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

© Christie Watson 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critics Review

The handbook for compassion… a must-read book

Chris Evans

She repeatedly finds the beam of light in the darkest rooms… Watson is a terrific guide to the gritty reality of hospital life… We have never needed their [nurses’] expertise more than we do now

Daily Telegraph

Now more than ever, nurses are on our minds and in our hearts. Christie writes with beauty and compassion about how they do their jobs. When I wasn’t crying, I was marvelling

Tracy Chevalier, author of A Single Thread

Magnificent… timely and resonant… In these unprecedented times, Watson challenges the rest of us to be more like nurses and to find the courage to care, no matter who is in need

Sunday Express

An inspiring book for our challenging times. It’s never been more important to care for one another and the amazing Christie Watson shows us the way

Olivia Colman

Watson writes with wry humour and a cheerful, conversational tone, but the world of care she describes – mental health wards, dying children or neglected elderly patients – is often hard to bear… [The Courage to Care] is a love letter to her profession; her admiration for her colleagues shines through every story

Observer

In this timely read, Watson, a former nurse who returned to work in critical care during the coronavirus peak, tells stories both heart-in-mouth and humbling. She reveals the extraordinary, beyond-the-call-of-duty work that nurses do, and the bravery of the patients and families they care for

Daily Mirror

I loved The Courage to Care – Christie Watson writes so tenderly and truthfully. It is a spirit-lifting read

Jacqueline Wilson

Watson has an unflinching eye for detail, and her ability to put the reader in the room means that we too bear witness… As Watson explains in her introduction, she has been talking and writing about the importance of nurses for years, but Covid-19 – which came along as she was making her final edits to the book – has made her subject more poignant and timely

The Times

Inspirational

Mail on Sunday

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