Description

An inspiring and life-affirming story of a difficult childhood transformed into happy adulthood through the power of nature and gardens

Beloved author Marc Hamer writes about finding refuge in his tiny back garden in this highly original story of childhood, old age, and the restorative power of gardens. As a child, he kindled a deep love of the earth by watching plants and insects and exploring the world through a stack of old encyclopaedias he found in the shed. Now an old man, he creates a garden for himself in the neglected plot behind his house.

A little book with a big heart: the insights glow as vivid as a flowerbed. If you want to be inspired, or you’ve lost your belief in the goodness of this world, this could be for you.

‘A sublime meditation on life, love, nature and family, woven with the wisdom gained through a life well lived’ Lee Schofield, author of Wild Fell

‘Patterned with Hamer’s gifts for observation, compression, and tone’ New Yorker

‘Rich and tender’ New York Times

‘A book of great but tender power’ Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast

Publisher Review

A memoir infused with wisdom and a deep love of nature, as well as a how-to book for finding peace of mind * Saga * Hamer's prose proceeds by association and by charismatic detail... but it also has a strong sense of arc, of change...He has an inclination to celebrate and express love-an inclination that seems built out of the humus of a difficult childhood...he is not an Adam cast out of the garden but "a boy cast out of hell," and into a series of gardens. * New Yorker * An illuminating, powerful read * Woman's Own * Marc Hamer knows how to live - simply, sparely, reverently, abundantly. Spring Rain is a tonic for the soul. * Sy Montgomery, author of How to Be A Good Creature * Interwoven with the writer's deep-seated love of the natural world... I highlighted many passages while reading this book * Countryman * A breathtaking narrative that transcends genre and geography. * Shelf Awareness * * Hamer explains why a garden is not just a place of work - it's also a place of worship. -- Margaret Roach * New York Times * Mr. Hamer has found his ideal calling in this book stitched together from small essays, a genre in which such capricious mutability of opinion is not only tolerated but encouraged. Through his words, we connect with the ultimate text, the landscape itself. * Wall Street Journal * Hamer's signature prose, rich with precise, detailed observations that evoke the luminous wonder that informs and illuminates all being, is on full display * Vancouver Sun * A book of great but tender power; acute, wise and intimately observed, speaking with the unmistakable voice of the land itself - which is equally unmistakably Hamer's own. And what a voice that is! -- Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild 'A sublime meditation on life, love, nature and family, woven with the wisdom of age gained through a life well lived' * Lee Schofield, author of Wild Fell * Hamer has a canny way of divining the sacred in the quotidian * Booklist * No facet of nature, however subtle, eludes Marc Hamer - and I relish being invited along on each intimate adventure * Margaret Roach, author of A Way to Garden * A wonderful book about our relationship with the earth, with other animals and with our own troubled humanity. It has taught me a lot. I feel great love for it -- Max Porter, on How to Catch a Mole: A Life in Nature A wholly original, semi-autobiographical book on how to live, how to be calm and content with only a little, in a quietly humming garden * Daily Mail, on Seed to Dust * From a hardscrabble childhood and vagrancy to the life-enhancing rewards of nurturing both 12 acres and an unusual friendship... Hamer meditations take similar forms, starting down to earth, if not actually in it, and ending taking off for the skies one way or another. His prose mimics this, beginning earthy and becoming airy. -- Tim Dee * Guardian, on Seed to Dust * A fascinating, lyrical account of the loneliness and beauty of life on the margins * Times Literary Supplement, on How to Catch a Mole: A Life in Nature * A beguiling and poetic memoir - illustrated with Hamer's line drawings - he encourages us to tune into the consoling rhythms of nature * Bookseller * Hamer lets us in; we learn what his tools feel like in hands hardened by decades of manual labour... But it is also an unlikely love story * Telegraph, on Seed to Dust * Patterned with Hamer's gifts for observation, compression, and tone. . . I tend to think of a garden story as inevitably circular: every winter is followed by a spring, again and again. Hamer's garden story has that element, but it is as neighborly with the mortal arrow as it is with the return -- Rivka Galchen * New Yorker *