MixedThe Guardian (UK)Most of his chapters begin with something actual – a task in hand – before the moment is dug over into a philosophical-ish aperçu. All are well made; some read true, others are squishier. The formula is much repeated. There seem more than enough insights – a glut of soft fruit – and too many come to rest in descriptions of their describe ... A good chapter retells the life history of an aphid, then, nearby, Hamer imagines himself a raindrop; on another page he’s the Minotaur. It adds up to a whole heap of curious self-regard in a book ostensibly about the need to shred the self.
Richard Mabey
RaveThe GuardianThe book reads as a happy tangle of beautiful stories and studies from a career that has stepped between science and poetry, or as its subtitle says, between botany and the imagination.
