Paperback : £8.73
A life-affirming memoir about gardens and what they mean to us from childhood to old age, the joy we can find in ordinary things and our place in nature.
In Tales of Spring Rain- A Memoir through Family Gardens, writer and professional gardener, Marc Hamer, considers age and contentment and how we reconcile our sense of ourselves as children with where we have ended up as adults. Alternate chapters follow him as a child and his current life as a 65 year old and what home gardens have meant to both. He weaves practical gardening knowledge through these two meditative memoir strands as he describes the planning and planting of his new small garden near Cardiff.
A life-affirming memoir about gardens and what they mean to us from childhood to old age, the joy we can find in ordinary things and our place in nature.
In Tales of Spring Rain- A Memoir through Family Gardens, writer and professional gardener, Marc Hamer, considers age and contentment and how we reconcile our sense of ourselves as children with where we have ended up as adults. Alternate chapters follow him as a child and his current life as a 65 year old and what home gardens have meant to both. He weaves practical gardening knowledge through these two meditative memoir strands as he describes the planning and planting of his new small garden near Cardiff.
Marc Hamer was born in the North of England and moved to Wales over thirty years ago. After spending a period homeless, then working on the railway, he returned to education and studied fine art in Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent. He has worked in art galleries, marketing, graphic design and taught creative writing in a prison before becoming a gardener. Both his books, A Life in Nature; or How to Catch a Mole and Seed to Dust have been longlisted for the Wainwright Prize.
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.
*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*
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
