Christie Watson: ‘The smell of old books is the best perfume’

You were a nurse for 20 years. It’s the subject of your memoir, The Language of Kindness: A Nurse’s Story. What are your abiding memories and what did it teach you?

Nursing? That’s impossible to answer in a few sentences but hopefully the memoir comes close to answering this question.

Your new novel, Moral Injuries, has a medical setting. What’s it about and what was your motivation for writing it?

It’s about sex, lies and medicine. I wrote it because I love writing novels and wanted to write a twisty thriller about deeply flawed women, relatable women, who happen to be doctors.

Your debut novel, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, about the fallout for a Nigerian family after the father’s affair, won the Costa First Novel Award. How big a challenge was it to write?

First novels are in many ways the easiest to write, or at least that’s my experience. I had no weight of expectation that it was even going to be published, no deadline, no PR schedule for the previous books. It was a very freeing and lovely time, though like all things took a lot of determination and hard work to finish it.

Despite it being a turbulent time in many women’s lives, including mine, it’s such a blessing to get older. And hopefully wiser. Maybe

The follow-up, Where Women Are Kings, tackled adoption, race and mental illness. Tell us more

Where Women Are Kings is unrelated to my first novel, and this one was the really difficult second novel. I had to write it, as I was under contract, but my personal life was in chaos – my relationship broke down and I found myself a single parent, and my beloved dad died. Where Women Are Kings is about family, and how some families can’t survive. That is no accident, I’m sure, despite it being entirely fiction.

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Quilt on Fire: Friendship, Dating, Sex and Love is a midlife memoir. What are its messages?

I wanted to present a reality about midlife that was ultimately hopeful. A breaking-open rather than breaking-down. Despite it being a turbulent time in many women’s lives, including mine, it’s such a blessing to get older. And hopefully wiser. Maybe.

You are professor of medical humanities at the University of East Anglia, where you did your master’s in creative writing? Is the seam between the two invisible for you?

I love working at UEA, which is where I did my MA in creative writing 16 or so years ago. I am teaching a different subject but there is much crossover, and being on campus feels like coming home in some way.

Which projects are you working on?

I’ve just finished a book, No Filters: A Mother-teenage daughter love story, co-written with my daughter, Rowan, when she was between the ages of 16-18 (she’s now just turned 19). It’s about generational differences and deals with subjects such as gender, race, social media, mental health. It’s going to be published in January 2025. I’ll take a few weeks off now, then start the next novel. I never like to be not writing.

Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?

I took the children to Key West to Hemingway’s house under the ruse of Disneyland.

What is the best writing advice you have heard?

Just do it.

Who do you admire the most?

My grandmother – 97 years old and still swears at the news.

You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?

I’d ban all social media forever.

Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?

Book: This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things by Naomi Wood. It is published in April and is available for pre-order. It’s so clever.

Which public event affected you most?

Giving the Royal College of Nursing congress speech to thousands of nurses after my nursing memoir was published. It meant so much as this was my tribe. A few people in the front appeared to be asleep, and I was terrified, but everyone stood up at the end and clapped. I was so moved.

The most remarkable place you have visited?

The Andaman Islands

Your most treasured possession?

My books.

What is the most beautiful book that you own?

All books are beautiful, but I love old books (and bookshops). The smell of old books is the best perfume.

Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Dorothy Parker, Toni Morrison, Nora Ephron, dear Dolly Alderton and Frida Kahlo – who was more painter than writer but the world’s greatest storyteller nonetheless.

The best and worst things about where you live?

There is only best. South London forever.

What is your favourite quotation?

Take my advice. I’m not using it.

Who is your favourite fictional character?

Chicken Licken. A character from a children’s book who was convinced the sky was falling in, only to realise it was an acorn. I relate.

A book to make me laugh?

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny.

A book that might move me to tears?

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.

Moral Injuries by Christie Watson is published by W&N on March 14th