“Patient, the true story of a rare illness, that was first published in 1996. It’s written in a lyrical style without self-pity and is never sentimental. It contains his observations about what severe illness really is and about his struggle with both the mental as well as the physical difficulties of recovery. Watt injects pathos and humor into his medical nightmare, writing about his childhood, reflecting on his family and on his shared life with band member and partner Tracey Horn. The result is a provocative and affecting memoir about life, illness, and survival. The most powerful images in the book are the descriptions of the things that go on around him in the hospital and how he and his family and friends deal with the illness.
His recovery took a long time and as Watt wrote: “to paraphrase Joseph Heller: You know it’s something serious when they name it after two guys”…
In interviews, Watt pointed out that writing the book was a way of dealing with his illness. It helped him to explain the emotional trauma that he was going through at the time and how turning his thoughts into words was crucial to his recovery.

This is a painfully honest and extremely well-written account of unexpected, unexplained serious illness in a young man and his diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. It's very compelling, I read it one sitting. The style is very direct and you feel drawn to the situation. The time spent on hospital wards is very accurately portrayed, especially adjusting toward life and how your world shrinks, distractions are few, boredom stretches endlessly and one becomes inevitably introspective. This is a very affecting book, it doesn't pull it punches and is all the more powerful for it. Brilliant. So glad that he has made a good recovery.