Spring Rain: A wise and life-affirming memoir about how gardens can help us heal - Hardcover

Hamer, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1787303314 ISBN 13: 9781787303317

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2023

Synopsis

'Infused with wisdom and a deep love of nature... a how-to book for finding peace of mind' Saga

This is a story about the rain, a boy, an angry dog and a gardener, and how some of them find peace and freedom...

In Spring Rain, writer and gardener Marc Hamer shares his path from difficult beginnings to contentment, by way of family gardens.

As a young boy in a violent home, Marc found refuge in his small back garden. Here he kindled a lifelong love of nature and learning by observing the plants and insects in his private kingdom and reading the old encyclopaedias he found in the shed.

Marc has always found the answers to life's questions in the natural world, whether as a child watching ants, as a young man living rough in the countryside, or as a professional gardener creating places of calm and restoration for others. Now in his sixties, he is finally creating a garden for himself, at his home in Cardiff. In this beautiful and moving memoir, he considers what he has learned, from the spring of youth to his autumn years, and reflects on how we reconcile our childhoods with where we end up.

With line drawings by the author, Spring Rain encourages us back in tune with the natural world and offers both consolation and a guide to a happier life.

PRAISE FOR MARC HAMER:

'Wisdom...patterned with Hamer's gifts for observation, compression, and tone' New Yorker

'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

'Wholly original... on how to live, how to be calm and content with only a little, in a quietly humming garden' Daily Mail

About this title

About the Author

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1787303314
• ISBN 13: 9781787303317
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240