The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

“Charles Mackesy’s mesmerizing debut combines the simplicity of The Giving Tree, magic of The Velveteen Rabbit, and the curiosity of Paddington.” - Elisabeth Egan, New York Times

Charlie Mackesy began sharing conversations between the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse on his social media channels in early 2018. He published The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse in late 2019 and the book has since brought comfort and joy to over seven million readers worldwide.

After two years of collaborative work, in 2022, the short film adaptation of the book will be released alongside The Book of the Film.

Charlie collaborates with a number of charities, including Comic Relief–he created the iconic “Love Wins” t-shirt–as well as the NHS, Choose Love, WWF and The Samaritans. During the pandemic he donated prints, books, drew on hospital walls, and posted messages of support to NHS workers, which he continues.

Charlie began his career as a cartoonist for The Spectator and a book illustrator for Oxford University Press. He spent time in America as a portrait painter and ran art therapy workshops for Alzheimer’s sufferers and Holocaust survivors. He lived and painted in South Africa, and collaborated with Nelson Mandela on a lithograph project, “The Unity Series.” And worked with Richard Curtis on the set of Love Actually to create a set of drawings to be auctioned for Comic Relief. Away from art, Charlie co-runs a social enterprise, Mama Buci in Zambia. His work features in books, private collections and public spaces, including Highgate Cemetery in London, in hospitals, prisons, churches, and university colleges around the UK, and in women’s safe houses around the world.

He lives in Suffolk with his dog Barney.