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

They are always faintly narrative - the Bear and the Hare in John Lewis’ 2013 ad centered around the vague idea of Christmas, just as the Boy, the Mole, and the others travel toward the vague idea of home - but are primarily driven by sentimental setpieces, created only from abstracted signifiers pointing toward emotional caricature rather than any emotion in particular. The book’s second line, “ but you make a big difference,” reads suspiciously close to “sometimes, the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” Suspicious beyond a reasonable doubt, some would say.īut The Boy, the Mole is best understood as part of a lineage of British Christmas adverts: specifically, the style brought in by the collaborations between the department store John Lewis and the advertising agency Adam & Eve, which started in the late 2000s but peaked throughout the 2010s as innumerable similar brands copied them, making ever so slight variations on the exact same thing. Shepard) tries to retain the energy of underdrawing to the sentimental one-liners which don’t just borrow their rhythm from A.A. While Raymond Briggs’ influence can be seen in both Charlie Mackesy’s book and the film adaptation he co-directed with Peter Baynton, he pinches much more liberally, and much more blatantly, from Winnie the Pooh : from the loose art style which (like E.H. 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.The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is quite naked in its ambitions to become the next classic British Christmas special - The Snowman (1982) for a new generation. Perhaps you saw the boy and mole on the Comic Relief T-shirt, Love Wins? They sometimes even appear on lamp posts and on cafe and bookshop windows.

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.

'A wonderful work of art and a wonderful window into the human heart' Richard CurtisĮnter the world of Charlie's four unlikely friends, discover their story and their most important life lessons. For fans of Winnie-the-pooh's Little Book of Wisdom.ĭiscover the very special book that has captured the hearts of millions of readers all over the world.

A reminder of what truly matters, as told through the adventures of four beloved friends.

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