books

See inside artist Charlie Mackesy’s beautiful new book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse

Published 11:33 19 Oct 2019 BST

Keeley Ryan

See inside artist Charlie Mackesy’s beautiful new book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse

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Chances are, you have seen the The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse before.

British artist Charlie Mackesy's illustrations of four likely friends - and their important lessons around hope, kindness and friendship - have been shared widely across the world. In fact, his illustrations ‘help’ and ‘kind’ have been shared over 1,000,000 times so far.

Conversations between Charlie’s four characters have been recreated in school art classes, shared by the military, used in hospitals and therapy clinics and turned into tattoos. They inspire parents and grandparents, comfort children, cheer people up who feel lonely or are grieving. And they help people who need courage, or a reminder that they are not alone and to keep going when life is hard.

Each character represents a part of Charlie and a part of us all, and through his carefully considered words of hope he shares their most poignant and universal life lessons. And now, they have been turned into a book: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse.

"My hope is that the book goes some way to helping people live more courageously, more honestly and with more love for themselves and others," Mackesy said of the book. Providing some new, previously unseen illustrations, alongside some of his most beloved work, Mackesy's book was released earlier this month - and would make the perfect gift in the lead up to the holiday season. Take a look at some of the gorgeous illustrations in the book below.

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse is available to buy in store now. You can find Charlie on Instagram here.

A good book can do just about anything; from taking you on a wild and fantastical adventure to making you feel like an all-knowing super sleuth (if you figure out the killer twist). But what's good to read? Each week, #Bookmarked will help you out - with an insight into the best novels hitting shelves right now and other faves that everyone needs to read at least once in their lives.