MARc HAMER

Marc Hamer grew up in the North of England. After spending over a year homeless as a young man, sleeping rough and wandering the countryside, he studied fine art in Manchester and Staffordshire and began to write poetry and short stories. 

He has worked in chicken shops, a steel works, the railway, art galleries, as a magazine editor and taught art and creative writing to young prisoners before becoming a gardener, which he has enjoyed being now for many years. Marc has been published in a variety of journals. He has lived with his wife in Wales for over thirty years.

Marc’s memoir How to Catch a Mole is being published in the UK by Harvill Secker  the day before the festival begins.  Over the years, Marc has learned a great deal about these small, velvet creatures who live in the dark beneath us, and the myths that surround them, and his work has also led him to a wise and uplifting acceptance of the inevitable changes that we all face. In this beautiful and meditative book, Marc tells his story and explores what moles, and a life in nature, can tell us about our own humanity and our search for contentment.

 

Cafodd Marc Hamer ei fagu yng Ngogledd Lloegr. Yn ddyn ifanc, bu’n ddi-gartref am dros flwyddyn - yn cysgu allan a chrwydro cefn gwlad. Astudiodd gelfyddyd gain ym Manceinion a Swydd Stafford cyn dechrau sgwennu barddoniaeth a straeon byrion.

 

Mae wedi gweithio mewn siopau cyw iâr, mewn gwaith dur, ar y rheilffordd ac mewn orielau celf; bu’n olygydd cylchgrawn ac yn athro celf ac ysgrifennu creadigol i garcharorion ifanc cyn iddo ddechrau gweithio fel garddwr. Bu wrth ei fodd yn garddio ers nifer o flynyddoedd bellach. Mae nifer fawr o gylchgronnau wedi cyhoeddi gweithiau gan Marc. Mae’n byw gyda’i wraig yng Nghymru ers deng mlynedd ar hugain.

 

Cyhoeddir cyfrol hunangofianol Marc, ‘How to Catch a Mole’, gan Harvill Secker ddiwrnod cyn dechrau gŵyl Talacharn. Dros y blynyddoedd, mae Marc wedi dysgu cryn dipyn am y creaduriaid bach melfed hyn sy’n byw yn nhywyllwch y ddaear oddi tanom, ac am y fytholeg o’u cwmpas; ac mae’i waith hefyd wedi bod yn ysbrydoliaeth iddo fedru derbyn y newidiadau anochel sy’n wynebu pob un ohonom. Yn y llyfr hyfryd a myfyriol yma, mae Marc yn adrodd ei stori ac yn archwilio beth y gall gwaddod a bywyd yng ngwmni byd natur ei ddatgelu i ni am anian ein dynoliaeth wrth i ni geisio ffeindio bodlonrwydd.