The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy

Genre: Illustrated Fiction - Inspiration

Star Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

Intro

Enter the world of Charlie's four unlikely friends, discover their story and their most important life lessons. The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse have been shared millions of times online - perhaps you've seen them? They've also been recreated by children in schools and hung on hospital walls. They sometimes even appear on lamp posts and on cafe and bookshop windows. Perhaps you saw the boy and mole on the Comic Relief T-shirt, Love Wins?

Here, you will find them together in this book of Charlie's most-loved drawings, adventuring into the Wild and exploring the thoughts and feelings that unite us all.

Review

Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse is a quiet little book that feels like a conversation you didn’t know you needed. Told through sparse text and tender illustrations, it follows four unlikely companions as they wander together, asking small questions about life, love, fear, and kindness.

The boy is curious, the mole is greedy for cake but wise in surprising ways, the fox is cautious, and the horse is gentle and strong. None of them are meant to be extraordinary, if anything, they’re the kind of figures you might overlook. But their voices, woven together, become a reminder that gentleness and honesty are as valuable as ambition or success.

The art carries much of the emotion. Mackesy’s ink sketches feel raw, sometimes unfinished, but that looseness makes them intimate, as if you’re peeking into someone’s notebook. I found myself pausing on certain pages, not to analyze but just to breathe with them.

What makes the book resonate is its simplicity. There’s no plot to drive forward, no twists to anticipate. It’s more like a companion for your bedside table; something to dip into when the world feels heavy.

I’d give it four out of five stars. Not because it dazzles with complexity, but because it stays with you in the quietest way.