PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
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.
From the first few words I knew I had encountered loving honesty and no one needs more than that. It is rare to encounter such respect and understanding of nature for herself. -- Rosamund Young, author of The Secret Life of Cows In lyrical prose, Hamer revealed a curious kinship with moles - creatures who, like him, often work alone. Like Laurie Lee, Hamer is an elegist, attracted to what's beautiful precisely because it's poised to pass away. * Washington Post * How To Catch A Mole is a beguiling mixture: part autobiography, part handbook, part travel book, part philosophical treatise. I'm happy to report that it succeeds on each level -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * Not only a compelling meditation on the 'little gentleman in black velvet'...but also a fascinating, lyrical account of the loneliness and beauty of life on the margins, a memoir of vagrancy * Times Literary Supplement * This is 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
