Words and pictures

Most of us have never met Charlie Mackesy, the artist and author behind the book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, but we feel that we have. Ever since his ink and watercolour drawings started to appear on Instagram in 2017, people have been magnetically drawn into his world. As well as the simple messages of kindness, understanding, love, compassion and, above all, hope written around drawings of his four characters, we saw glimpses of his own life. His feed contains pictures of many, many drawings – 50,000 of them – strewn across every room of his house. His late mother (he was devoted to her and, alongside his sister Sara, cared for her) featured often, as well as his beloved dachshund Barney, who occasionally walked across a drawing. Almost apologetic text accompanied his posts (which gained momentum peak-pandemic), as though he was embarrassed to be taking up our attention.

But that is just what he has done, because his book has now sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, and the short animated film that followed it has won both a BAFTA and an Oscar. All this seems to matter very little to this artist from the north of England who never went to art school. “If someone told me that my art would only reach ten people, I would still do it,” he says, reminding me that “I’ve been doing it professionally since I was 20.” It’s a good thing that the global exposure only came now, though: “I probably couldn’t have handled it at 25,” he admits. He tells me the goal of selling 45 works at Bonhams in a sale running from 7-18 December (“a great privilege”, he says) is if they can touch more people. “I’m not interested in the art world,” he adds. “It’s people who interest me.”

Stay updated with our auctions. Sign up to receive your weekly newsletter of global auctions, stories and more from Bonhams and our sister companies. Subscribe now

Mackesy does not like to be put into a box, in the way that artists often are by dealers and critics. Still, as one of his followers, I can say that what resonated with me the most was the simplicity of the drawings, which seem to come from a fast-moving but highly skilled hand. Lines are blurred and often overlap. They often don’t end. The charming characters bleed into landscapes with the occasional ink stain thrown in for good measure (the moon in one drawing is a tea stain). Nothing is mannered or laboured. Indeed, it feels like a kind of piano improvisation. The characters reminded me a bit of Winnie-the-Pooh, though it is The Wind in the Willows that he cites as an influence.

The combination of drawings and simple but profound words is powerful. Mackesy tells me he has fans who are 80 years old and fans who are 4 years old (the cake-eating mole is a particular favourite). That The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse crosses every literary genre and language is a publishing anomaly.

The book hit the right chord just when we needed it, coming out in 2019, just before the pandemic. We live in a scary, fast-changing world. Connection is getting harder to find. Loneliness is rampant. “When the big things feel out of control, focus on what you love right under your nose,” he writes in one of his busier drawings, showing a windswept forest with a small picture of the horse and the boy. Comfort is at hand in places you already know, like nature and friendship and, of course, animals. It’s OK to feel vulnerable – everybody does. Comparisons are odious, fear keeps us all small, kindness is easy.

Mackesy does not like simplifications (or flattery). He thinks what hit a nerve is that his book talks about honesty, “and allowing ourselves to feel”. In one of his drawings, he writes, “When the dark clouds come. Keep going… and love most of all.”

There’s no preaching, just empathetic observations that every person (including children) can relate to. Mackesy says the language of his work comes from a raw place, namely “my own experience”. The fact that his best friend died in a car crash when he was 19 played a big part in his emotional journey, but the advice and wisdom the characters share (“What do you think success is?” asks the boy, “Love” says the mole) are universal. “I get emails (literally millions of them) from therapists, schools, hospitals, from soldiers with PTSD and people thinking of ending their lives,” he says. “Some make me cry. It’s a responsibility when you put things out in the world. I will never forget some of the emails.” He answers as many as he can.

We chat briefly about how to deal with the many horrible events taking place in the world. “All the things happening are tragedies,” he says, “and we focus our interest on them, but there’s also a huge amount of love around.”

Though self-taught, Mackesy has been drawing since he was a child, having been deeply influenced by Tintin, Asterix and Obelix, and particularly the work of cartoonist Edward Ardizzone (“he had a powerful effect on me”). Mackesy was raised in Northumberland, a “wild and rural existence where the landscape was interwoven into the fabric of life. There was such an unspoken connection,” he says. I ask if this might have influenced his work, which is often set in nature with little or no boundary between earth and sky (he seldom fills a whole page). “Humans are not separate from nature,” he replies. “They are part of it.” His drawings make even more sense in that context – I’m thinking of the drawing with the fox, the boy and the mole looking at a shooting star, with the words “So much beauty we need to look after” written below.

Mackesy tells me the genesis of the book was a WhatsApp group with friends, where he would post drawings to gauge their reaction. It was this sounding board that led to his Instagram page, and the rest we know. “I was approached by a few editors. A few came around and showed enthusiasm.” He is thoughtful. “Often, I’d wonder why we were doing this. The only reason really is if it could make someone feel better.

Helen Kirwan-Taylor is an artist. She also writes for the Financial Times, The Times and Harper’s Bazaar