From the Sunday Times bestselling and award-winning author, a gripping psychological drama that asks how far will you go to protect your own, when you're trained to protect the lives of others?

Ruthlessly ambitious Olivia, anxious perfectionist Laura and free-spirited risk-taker Anjali couldn't be more different. Yet their friendship, which began on the first day of medical school, has kept them inseparable for twenty-five years. As wild all-nighters and exam pressures gave way to the struggles and joys of new motherhood and intense jobs, their bond remained unbreakable. Years ago they promised that nothing would come between them and that they'd do anything for one another, including burying one night they have never spoken about: a drug-fuelled university party that forced them to make a deadly choice that could still destroy them.

When an eerily similar tragedy strikes involving their teenage children, everything the three women have built threatens to shatter around them. And they are left asking: just how far can you stretch a friendship before it snaps?

When you're trained to protect the lives of others, how far will you go to protect your own? Laura is a perfectionist and extremely capable air ambulance doctor. As part of the ethics committee at the hospital, she is also the person who chooses whether critical care patients live or die. She's worked hard to get here: gruelling years at medical school, made bearable by her two best friends, level-headed Olivia and livewire Anjali. As wild all-nighters and exam pressure gave way to the struggles and joys of new motherhood and new jobs, their unbreakable bond has supported each other through it all. And then, one night, life overturns in an moment and the past threatens to shatter everything they hold dear in the present. Can even those we trust with our lives be dangerous in the right circumstances? And is there a limit to what we would do for those we love?

'A wildly entertaining and necessary book' Elizabeth Day, author of Magpie An honest conversation about Christie Watson's journey through midlife and how to navigate new challenges of a changing body. In her early twenties, Christie Watson was convinced she'd found her soulmate, in a glowing flash of light that turned out to be a tealight setting her quilt on fire. Twenty years later, her bed is burning once again... as she wakes in a perimenopausal sweat, night after night. This is the story of her journey through midlife: of the joy of letting go and the pain of the morning after, of the unstoppable power of female friendship and the struggle to raise teenagers as a single parent. It lays bare the exhilaration, agony, wonder and fears of being a middle-aged woman with a wild heart, a changing body and a new set of challenges. And as her world takes on a different shape, there's something else she starts to feel: the hot flush of possibility... 'A must-read for every woman' Jacqueline Wilson, author of The Story of Tracy Beaker 'A laugh-out-loud, haunting and beautifully crafted manual' Dreda Say Mitchell, author of Say Her Name 'Wickedly funny, deliciously candid and deeply moving' Rachel Clarke, author of Dear Life 'Give Quilt on Fire to your daughter, mother, sister, friends. A howlingly good midlife battle cry' Jess Kidd, author of Things in Jars 'Brilliant... Like having an honest conversation with a smart and funny friend' Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Dear Reader

Read Costa Award-winning author Christie Watson's incredible No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling memoir of nursing today. 'It made me cry. It made me think. It made me laugh' Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt and Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas 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. 'A powerful insight into the life of nurses' The Times, Books of the Year 'A remarkable book about life and death and so brilliantly written it makes you hold your breath' Ruby Wax

'An inspiring book for our challenging times' Olivia Coleman 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. 'Let's be thankful for wonderful nurses - and writers - like Christie Watson' Jacqueline Wilson '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

'A wildly entertaining and necessary book' ELIZABETH DAY 'A must-read for every woman' JACQUELINE WILSON 'A laugh-out-loud, haunting and beautifully crafted manual' DREDA SAY MITCHELL ________ In her early twenties, Christie Watson was convinced she'd found her soulmate, in a glowing flash of light that turned out to be a tealight setting her quilt on fire. Twenty years later, her bed is burning once again... as she wakes in a perimenopausal sweat, night after night. This is the story of her journey through midlife: of the joy of letting go and the pain of the morning after, of the unstoppable power of female friendship and the struggle to raise teenagers as a single parent. It lays bare the exhilaration, agony, wonder and fears of being a middle-aged woman with a wild heart, a changing body and a new set of challenges. And as her world takes on a different shape, there's something else she starts to feel: the hot flush of possibility... 'Wickedly funny, deliciously candid and deeply moving' RACHEL CLARKE, author of Dear Life 'Give Quilt on Fire to your daughter, mother, sister, friends. A howlingly good midlife battle cry' JESS KIDD, author of Things in Jars 'Brilliant... Like having an honest conversation with a smart and funny friend' CATHY RENTZENBRINK, author of Dear Reader

Winner of the 2011 Costa First Novel Award
When their mother catches their father with another woman, twelve year-old Blessing and her fourteen-year-old brother, Ezikiel, are forced to leave their comfortable home in Lagos for a village in the Niger Delta, to live with their mother's family. Without running water or electricity, Warri is at first a nightmare for Blessing. Her mother is gone all day and works suspiciously late into the night to pay the children's school fees. Her brother, once a promising student, seems to be falling increasingly under the influence of the local group of violent teenage boys calling themselves Freedom Fighters. Her grandfather, a kind if misguided man, is trying on Islam as his new religion of choice, and is even considering the possibility of bringing in a second wife.
But Blessing's grandmother, wise and practical, soon becomes a beloved mentor, teaching Blessing the ways of the midwife in rural Nigeria. Blessing is exposed to the horrors of genital mutilation and the devastation wrought on the environment by British and American oil companies. As Warri comes to feel like home, Blessing becomes increasingly aware of the threats to its safety, both from its unshakable but dangerous traditions and the relentless carelessness of the modern world. "Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away "is the witty and beautifully written story of one family's attempt to survive a new life they could never have imagined, struggling to find a deeper sense of identity along the way.

'Everything changed after Mama found Father lying on top of another woman.'

Blessing and her brother Ezikiel adore their larger-than-life father, their glamorous mother and their comfortable life in Lagos. But all that changes when their father leaves them for another woman. Their mother is fired from her job at the Royal Imperial Hotel - only married women can work there - and soon they have to quit their air-conditioned apartment to go and live with their grandparents in a compound in the Niger Delta.

Adapting to life with a poor countryside family is a shock beyond measure after their privileged upbringing in Lagos. Told in Blessing's own beguiling voice, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away shows how some families can survive almost anything.

At times hilarious, always poignant, occasionally tragic, it is peopled with characters you will never forget.

Elijah, seven years old, is covered in scars and has a history of disruptive behaviour. His adoptive mother Nikki believes that she and her husband Obi are strong enough to accept his difficulties - and that being white will not affect her ability to raise a black son. Elijah's birth mother Deborah loves her son like the world has never known. Elijah thinks it's his fault they can't be together. Each of them faces more challenges than they could have dreamed, but just as Elijah starts to settle in, a shocking event rocks their fragile peace and the result is devastating.

Twelve-year-old Blessing and her brother are forced to leave their home in Lagos to live with their mother's family in a small village. Blessing's grandmother soon becomes her mentor, teaching her the ways of the midwife in rural Nigeria.