Writers Recommend: Marc Hamer
Marc's pick of the best books to read about nature
It is Wednesday, the peak of the week, the first of a new month and to celebrate Spring just around the corner I have for you another from my Writers Recommend series.
Marc Hamer’s nature writing curation was a hit in my pop-up bookshop, right from the very first weekend – two of his chosen books were poetry and I was stunned and delighted in equal measure that they flew off the shelves again and again.
This is also a special week for Marc as tomorrow (February 2) is publication day of his new book, SPRING RAIN.
This special book is billed as ‘a tonic for the soul’ and ‘a life-affirming memoir about how gardens can help us heal’. So if you are staring out at your sad little winter garden at the moment and wondering how to inject life into it, or indeed yourself, then this might be the right book for you.
Marc is the author or two other books, A LIFE IN NATURE, OR HOW TO CATCH A MOLE which was longlisted for the prestigious Wainwright Prize, and SEED TO DUST, which was shortlisted for the same prize. The latter was stocked in my pop-up shop alongside Marc’s curation and again, sold out many times over, and it is no exaggeration to share with you that most people who bought this book came back to tell me just how much they loved Marc’s story and his writing. He is a very special man, a gentle soul, and I was lucky enough that he agreed to catch up with me for a chat about his favourite books on the topic of writing about nature.
So, without further ado, let’s see which ones he picked:
Marc says: “Mary Oliver is an American poet and I’ve got a thing for American poetry and it’s got to do with my background and education, I went to an ordinary comprehensive school, I didn’t have a classical education when I tried to read a lot of English poetry I found it very difficult, there are a lot of allusions to classical literature and you can’t understand them, you don’t know what the poems are about. I discovered American poetry, it’s simple and straightforward, and it doesn’t matter that you come from a particular background.”
THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS by Wendell Berry
Marc says: “Another American poet and essayist, I just love Wendell Berry, he’s a working farmer and the poetry he writes blows me away. These little poems are little stories about managing and living with the things we have to live with, and in the title poem he’s telling the story about when he’s frightened and afraid for his children, he just goes to nature and becomes calm. Life is suffering, and we have to become resourceful about how we deal with that suffering or we fade away. Life is hard and difficult and there are wars and governments and events in the world that make life harder than they need to be, and you can spend your life fighting or you can find respite, and for me, sitting by the backdoor in my city garden and watching the sparrows or the rain dripping off the leaves, gives me that respite.”
TEACHING A STONE TO TALK by Annie Dillard
Marc says: “I love Annie Dillard’s writing, she writes essays, I think she’s an novelist as well. Her writing is beautiful, I would recommend anybody who is interested in writing to read her work about writing. Any line you pick out you will find something absolutely wonderful. I came across her a couple of years ago and she just writes about the stuff that we see and does it so well.”
THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES by Jean Giono
Marc says: “This is a very, very short book – just 31 pages long – but I absolutely love it. Not only do I love the story, but the way it came to be written, it’s about a chap who entered a writing competition and the topic of the competition was ‘the most interesting man you’ve ever met’ or something like that — he wrote about a man in Italy who was a farmer and carried a pocket of acorns with him and everywhere he went, he had this walking stick with a spike on the end, and he dropped acorns into the ground. The writer used to go and see him and eventually over the years a massive oak farm had grown, through this simple man doing this simple thing with a pocket of acorns. It’s so beautifully written, so poetic and you can read it in an hour.”
You can buy Marc’s entire curation of five books (including SEED TO DUST) here, and to celebrate publication week for Marc I have 10% off the entire set of five books for one week only. Have a listen to what Marc has to say about them below, and you will see he makes a persuasive case. It’s also, of course, not that long until Mother’s Day, and this would make a great gift, and if you live local to Tunbridge Wells, I can gift package it into a beautiful hamper for you.
Remember, I also still have 10% of Karen Angelico’s Love and Intimacy Curation until Valentine’s Day in case you’re looking for a gift for someone, or indeed a gift for yourself. You can find that here.
If you would like to see my full interview with Marc where he talks about his own writing life as well as the books he wants to press into your hands, and how we manage to stay peaceful in an increasingly frustrating world, you can watch the interview below, and I encourage you to find 30 minutes to do so as Marc is full of wisdom, and he even reads some of his favourite poems from these books.
• Remember you can still support THE BOOK ROOM while I am waiting to open my physical store again by shopping online. I can order ANY BOOK for you and you will receive it within 48 hours. It has never been a more important time to support both writers and independents bookshops, and by buying from me, you are doing both and contributing to a vital ecosystem.