A life-affirming book about the British countryside, the cycle of nature, solitude, mortality and contentment, through the prism of a brilliant new nature writer's experience working as a traditional mole-catcher.
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.
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*
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*
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
*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*
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