The people who changed careers and never looked back

SJ Watson was an audiology specialist before penning the international bestseller Before I Go To Sleep, which was turned into a Hollywood film.

While working with hearing-impaired children at St Thomas’s Hospital in London, he tried to write fiction in the evenings but as his workload increased, his time got increasingly tight.

Things peaked in 2008 when his head of department announced his intention to retire.

“The next logical career step for me would have been to go for his job,” said Mr Watson.

“But I remember feeling very strongly that I just didn’t want to do that. It would have meant the end of any writing ambitions.

“I had a really clear sense that I was at a crossroads and I remembered that as a child my ambition had been to have a book published, not to be head of an NHS department.”

The 46-year-old left his job and managed to find a part-time post in a nearby hospital.

“As soon as I got that job I I knew it was the right choice, as straight away all my excuses not to write disappeared.

“I treated it as two jobs, I’d work in the NHS three days a week and then on my novel the other four… and in the evenings on my NHS days, too.”

The author felt leaving his steady job was a giant leap into the unknown, but one he knew he had to take.

“I realised I couldn’t live with myself if I got to the end of my life and realised I’d never really, seriously, tried to write a book,” he said.

“I knew I’d have to make sacrifices, but that seemed worth it. And as soon as I started, well before the book was even finished – let alone a success – I knew I’d made the right choice, because I was doing something for me.”