When you get a full page article written about you in the New Yorker you know that you’ve made it on the big stage.
Which is exactly what happened for English author, Marc Hamer, in the April 2nd, 2023 issue of the magazine. In it, staff writer, Rivka Galchen says: “Hamer has gifts for observation, compression, and tone.”
How Gardens Promise the Renewal of Life—and Its End | The New Yorker
Take a peek into Marc’s background and you’ll quickly understand why he is such a brilliantly engaging author. At 16, he was thrown out of an abusive home; in fact, his father blamed him for his mother’s death. “If it hadn’t been for you, we wouldn’t have argued, she would still be alive,” the teenager was told.
Marc went on to spend a couple of years on the street homeless, a time when he describes himself as a “tramp.”
Ever the gardener, Marc describes this state thusly:
“The homeless are our weeds, our very own wildflowers that grow in the cracks where they are not wanted.”
However, after a stint as a mole catcher, (yes! there was such a thing at one time), then working on the railway, Marc went on to study art, working in a variety of art-centric careers, including teaching creative writing in a prison. Working as a professional gardener for many years eventually inspired Marc to take up writing. His new book, Spring Rain: A Life Lived in Gardens, (Greystone Books), is the third in the trilogy; How to Catch A Mole was his first book in the series, which was followed by Seed to Dust, both of which were Indie Next Picks, as well as being shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize.
Photo credit: Kate Hamer
Marc’s imagery is gorgeously laced with nature-centric descriptions. In the chapter titled: A New Eden, fear of the wild, Marc talks about the impact a garden has on his senses.
“The garden whispers softly, like Ophelia driven mad with grief, and tells me how it would prefer to be. Shhh, look! There’s columbines here; plant foxgloves in the lilac shade for bees, and here plant ferns for their bright croziers and summer fronds, anemones for the wind, angelica and fennel for their frosted seeds and for the birds, and here put daisies and forget-me-nots for innocence, forgetfulness and uncomplicated love.
It wants to fill my senses, be liberated, unconstrained, to make each mind that sees it feel slick and non-stick, so that whoever brings their fears, bad memories or worries here will lose them; they’ll slide off and fall and crumple at their feet like autumn leaves, to rot and fade and leave them clean, washed and dusted, so they can be absored and swallowed in natrure’s wildness and its magic.”
CREATIVE AGING BOOKS & IDEAS, (a division of Art Your Service, artyourservice.org)
HOSTS MARC HAMER ON THURSDAY, MAY 25, AT 2 P.M. EST.
Click here to register for your FREE ZOOM LINK here:
Veritable connections and a sincere fondness for different types of flowers resonate with colourful and meaningful description, nurturing an understanding of the journey that these beautiful gifts of nature bestow upon us, which in effect transforms the ordinary into extraordinary offerings.
“The lilac has a natural wildness in its twisted shape; it leans away from wind and folds towards the light as it makes the space its home. It grew twisted as it tried to reach the sun. Its shape tells the story of its life, just as our own shapes and features tell our stories. It’s happy here, but its ancestors lived on warm breezy hillsides in Eastern Europe, and it can live for more than a hundred years.”
Now in his 60’s Marc admits that he physically can’t do the heavy gardening that he used to do. But even in this aspect he is able to apply some wry humour to the situation – one that for so many of us is also a familiar situation.
“There are two kinds of old people,” Marc says. “There are the old people who are in pain and are miserable, and there are the old people who are in pain and are light-hearted. All old people are in pain.”
CREATIVE AGING BOOKS & IDEAS, (a division of Art Your Service, artyourservice.org)
HOSTS MARC HAMER ON THURSDAY, MAY 25, AT 2 P.M. EST.
Click here to register for your FREE ZOOM LINK here:
At this virtual event, Marc will be sharing some of his rich life experiences as well as the profound and fun-filled impact that gardening has had on his life.
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