Charlie Mackesy Books In Order

Publication Order of Graphic Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Charlie Mackesy
Charlie Mackesy was born in the year 1962 right in the middle of a very cold snowy winter in Northumberland, where he also grew up. He went off to boarding school when he was only seven years old. He lives in Suffolk and in London where he looks after both his sister and his mom.

He feels safe within the animal world. While growing up, he had a ferret, pet dog, guinea pigs, chickens, and rabbits. He spent a lot of his free time running around the hills with sheep.

He attended Radley College for just a little while as well as Hexham Queen Elizabeth High School, among some others, however he seemed to prefer drawing cartoons, ferreting, and swimming in the River Tyne. He tried university on two different occasions but quit both within one week.

Charlie never attended art school however he spent three months in America with a portrait painter where he learned how to deal with bed bugs and anatomy. He started as a cartoonist for The Spectator and a book illustrator for Oxford University Press. He also drew ads for the daily papers and he did poster designs for delights like Cockspur Rum.

This was all before he was taken on by galleries, with his first show taking place in a pub in the year 1984. Charlie first exhibited drawings in The Park Walk Gallery, London, and since has exhibited in galleries located in Edinburgh, New York, and London.

Charlie’s work features in books, public spaces (including hospitals, Highgate Cemetery in London, and churches, university colleges around the UK, prisons, and in women’s safe houses around the world). Collectors of his work include M. Night Shyamalan, Roger Waters, Tim Bevan, Howard Goodall, Bear Grylls, and Sting.

He has also collaborated with Nelson Mandela on a lithograph project, called “The Unity Series” and with Richard Curtis for Comic Relief. This last is one of his happiest times. He made drawings for Richard while on the set of the film “Love Actually” so that they could be auctioned off.

Charlie has painted and lived in places like New Orleans and South Africa. He was obsessed with New Orleans and he made endless studies of gospel bands and jazz clubs and he brought the work back to London for exhibit. Charlie’s obsession with music, and particularly the Royal Albert Hall, rages on.

He also co-runs a social enterprise, Mama Buci, in the Zambian copper belt, which aids families of low and no income in becoming beekeepers.

Charlie began drawing when Jamie, his best friend, was killed when Charlie was eighteen years old. It was something he chose to start doing because it helped him get through this tough time in his life. Like Forrest Gump, he just did not stop. So it is quite the odd way to begin, he supposes.

Charlie’s always drawn horses, something he began doing when he was just six years old, and has always loved moles. During his years of illustration he’s drawn them all in different ways for other people. Then, he decided to draw them for himself and put all of them together. The horse and the boy he has drawn as a subject for many years. The fox is actually one of the animals he has drawn the least and a good friend of his, named Scarlett Curtis, wanted a tattoo made of a fox and came to his studio one day and asked if he’d draw her one. So he drew many in different guises: running, standing, and sitting.

Then he eventually drew him next to the boy and believed it was an unlikely combo to see a boy sitting with a fox, because as a child he was horrified of foxes, as they always represented fear, and he wanted a creature that was fearful mixed in with all of the cuteness.

His journey with the mole, the fox, the boy, and the horse has consumed him. Charlie lives in their world much of the time and has just loved making the book.

Upon release, “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse” spent 55 weeks on the Sunday Times Bestsellers List top ten, was a New York Times bestseller, and has sold more than 1.4 million copies. The book was chosen as the Waterstones Book of the Year 2019 and was also shortlisted for the British Book Awards in the year 2020.

Mackesy was contacted by an editor that had seen his drawings on Instagram and was later published on her Ebury.

Charlie was surprised when his book became a bestseller. Making the book was tough for him. He had just lost one of his friends, and his dog, named Dill, was dying.

Charlie is a former atheist that has “found Jesus” and views his work as his way to “introduce God to those people that he loves. Many of his paintings have got a religious theme.

“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2019. This is a modern fable for all ages which explores life’s universal lessons, and features one hundred black-and-white and color drawings.

Charlie offers up a book of hope during uncertain times in this gorgeous book based off of his famous quartet of characters. Enter the world of Charlie’s four most unlikely pals, and discover their tale and their most important life lessons.

The book is radiant with Mackesy’s gentle wit and warmth, this book blends hand-written narrative with dozens of drawings, including some of his best-loved illustrations. One of which includes “Help”, which has been shared more than a million times and some new never-before-seen material.

Fans found this to be a wonderful glimpse into the human heart and a tremendous piece of art. This is a modern classic and is a charmingly designed keepsake which will be treasured for generations to come. Charlie delivers a gorgeous and heartfelt book that is filled to the brim with characters that each and every one of us is able to relate to in some way.

One Response to “Charlie Mackesy”

1. Margaret Guy: 6 months ago

   The most amazing book I have had the pleasure to read. Again thank you

   Reply