Novel Approach for This Year's Book of The Year Winner

AUTHOR SJ Watson has picked up the Oxford Mail/Waterstones Book of the Year award for his gripping suspense thriller Before I Go to Sleep.

Following its publication, the haunting debut novel stormed the bestseller lists in the UK and United States and has sold in more than 40 countries around the globe.

The major hook for the story is mesmerising, and must have accounted for thousands of readers who picked up the novel following word-of-mouth recommendations.

Christine, 47, had an accident two decades earlier which affected her ability to form new memories.

So she wakes up every morning in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar man. That means the man she has woken up with must explain that he is Ben, her husband – every single day.

In order to make some progress in her life, Christine begins to keep a journal, which she completes every night before she goes to sleep.

As she does so, with the help of a therapist called Ed Nash, she starts to suspect that things are not as they seem.

As she starts to doubt what her husband is telling her about her past, the tension mounts.

Collecting the award in London last week, Mr Watson – pictured centre with Waterstones events manager Charlie Hayes, left, and Oxford Mail features editor Jeremy Smith – told The Guide he was delighted the novel has received its latest accolade.

The former NHS worker wrote the bestseller while he worked as an audiologist in London, a position he took up after studying at Birmingham and Southampton universities.

“I’m delighted that Before I Go to Sleep has won this award,” said Mr Watson, 41, who is better known to his friends and family as Steve. When I worked as an audiologist I saw patients who suffered problems with their balance, and lots of other conditions, and when I sat down to write perhaps I subconsciously drew on this material.

“The actual inspiration for Christine was an obituary for an American memory disorder patient called Henry Molaison who died in 2008.

“He had an operation for epilepsy but it affected the part of the brain that forms new memories.

“I felt very strongly that I wanted to write the novel in the first person because I wanted to try to understand what it would be like to be in this situation.

“I quickly realised how discomforting it would be for the character and for the reader.

“I was also interested in the way we rely on other people, and the nature of love, and whether you can love someone if you can’t really remember them.”

Now a full-time writer, Mr Watson, originally from the West Midlands, lives in London with his partner Nick, also a former NHS worker.

He added: “I always wanted to write a page-turner, a thriller or a whodunnit, and I think I have achieved it.

“The most flattering thing readers say to me is that they stayed up all night to finish the novel or they forget to feed their children because they were trying to finish a few more pages.

“I’m now working on my second novel, which is another psychological thriller set in the UK, but perhaps without such a medical emphasis and with more sex in.

“I write fairly instinctively, but it’s always difficult to get into your stride with a new piece of work.

“Stephen King said ‘write the first draft with the door closed and the second draft with the door open’, but it’s more difficult to write with the door closed because of people’s expectations after my first novel.

“But of all the problems a writer can have, that’s actually not too bad.”

Hollywood director Ridley Scott quickly snapped up the film rights to the thriller and Mr Watson is now looking forward to visiting the set of the movie to see Nicole Kidman starring as Christine.

“The film has been in pre-production and I believe they are scheduled to start shooting soon,” he says. “I have a suspicion that they might be tempted to try to keep me away from the set but there will be some filming in the UK so I will definitely try to make a visit.”

The novel, first published in 2011, won the Crime Writers’ Association Award for Best Debut Novel and the Galaxy National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year.

Mr Watson is the fourth novelist to pick up the Oxford Mail/Waterstones award.

The previous winners were Chris Cleave for The Other Hand, David Nicholls for One Day, and Sarah Winman for When God Was a Rabbit.