Spring Rain
A Life Lived in Gardens
Will be published approx. on 14. April 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
216 pages
978-1-77840-276-0 (ISBN)
Description
“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
From the beloved author of How to Catch a Mole and Seed to Dust comes a highly original memoir of childhood, old age, and the restorative power of gardens.
Best enjoyed in a single sitting under the shade of a tree, this inventive and curative book captures the moment when an adventurous young boy who traveled the world in his mind meets the old man he becomes. Together, they build a new garden from a neglected plot behind his house on the edge of town.
Retired professional gardener Marc Hamer has always found the answers to life's questions in the natural world, whether as a child watching ants, as a young man living homeless 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, Wales. This moving memoir follows his process as he shares what he’s learned, from the spring of youth to his autumn years, and reflects on how we reconcile our childhoods with where we end up.
In Hamer’s own words, “Spring Rain is about the joy of your own back garden. It is a story about the joy of small things, the world in a grain of sand, a universe in a small garden, with love for all the insects and slugs and flowers and weeds and seeds and roots and boundaries and shade and weather that the garden contains.”
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Canada
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 187 mm
Width: 131 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
220 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77840-276-0 (9781778402760)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
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. He has worked in art galleries, marketing, graphic design and taught creative writing in a prison before becoming a gardener. His first book, How to Catch a Mole, was an Indie Next Pick and shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize. His second book, Seed to Dust, was also shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize.
Content
1 | Rain: An adventure at sea, treasure island, a little wooden hut
2 | Gardener: Gerberas, umbrella, zinc, guilt, bow tie
3 | Rain: Tools, seeds, a cleaning song, books and a train to nowhere
4 | Gardener: Arranging flowers, skeleton birds, a broken shed and letting go
5 | Rain: Alburnum to Chamomile
6 | Gardener: Venus, Lucifer, jellyfish, sunshine, crackly voice
7 | Rain: Horse farm, Antaeus, wolfsbane, a dying wasp
8 | Gardener: Ship of junk, memories, happiness, Thor
9 | Rain: A knife, a feather, starfish and a magpie’s tongue
10 | Gardener: A new Eden, fear of the wild
11 | Rain: Ant hills, molehills, pigtails, poison
12 | Gardener: A length of string, a blue wheelbarrow
13 | Rain: Tin-can radio, Slow the slug
14 | Gardener: A walk down by the eye-spikes, a dog, a ghost, a green man
15 | Rain: Rhubarb leaves and monkshood, Grandma’s cows and dowsing
16 | Gardener: I need three hands, a list of plants, sorting seeds, sparkling water
17 | Rain: A kiss, beautiful scars
18 | Gardener: Feelings, desire and suffering, a concert
19 | Rain: Growing vegetables, a lost box
20 | Gardener: Free will, choices, Paradise Lost
21 | Rain: Tea for three, Blackpool rock
22 | Gardener: Witness, enjoying the movie, hedgehogs
23 | Rain: Elephants, powdered horses, half a lady, people from Glasgow
24 | Gardener: Forget-me-nots, Zen monks, colour and scent
25 | Rain: Winter, hand of glory, Gipsy Rose Lee leaves, rust
26 | Gardener: Paradise lost
27 | Rain: Settling dust, booze, mother, vagrancy
28 | Gardener: Paradise regained
THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA
THE ILLUSTRATIONS
DEDICATION