Charlie Mackesy

Charles Piers Mackesy (born 11 December 1962) is a British artist, illustrator, and the author of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse and its sequel/continuation Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm (2025).

Early life Mackesy grew up in Northumberland in the north of England and was educated at Radley College and Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham. He also briefly attended university twice, but left on both occasions within a week.

Mackesy’s paternal grandparents were Major General Pierse Joseph Mackesy and writer Leonora Mackesy (born 1902), who wrote Harlequin romances as Leonora Starr and Dorothy Rivers. Career Mackesy began his career as a cartoonist for The Spectator, before becoming a book illustrator for Oxford University Press.

Mackesy's bronzes can be found in public spaces in London including Highgate Cemetery and the Brompton Road. His paintings have been exhibited widely, most frequently with galleries in London and New York.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse was first published in October 2019, and has been on the Sunday Times Bestsellers List top ten for over 100 weeks; it is the longest Sunday Times Hardback Number One of all time. His book was selected as the Waterstones Book of the Year 2019 and the Barnes & Noble Book of the Year 2019 (the first ever book to be awarded both in the same year) and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards in 2020.

Mackesy was amongst the winners of the 2020 Nielsen Bestseller Awards, with The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse achieving Platinum status. All titles which achieve Platinum status are inducted into the "21st century Hall of Fame;" the Hall of Fame includes 149 titles. In 2020, eight books passed the Platinum Award million copy sales threshold. Mackesy was awarded Maddox Gallery Artist of the Year at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in 2020 and Illustrator of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2021. Mackesy co-directed and co-wrote the animated short film based on the book. In March 2023, Mackesy and Matthew Freud won the Oscar for Animated Short Film for The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.

In 2022 the BBC made a documentary about Mackesy, the book and the making of the film, titled Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and Me. It featured contributions from Bear Grylls, a childhood friend of Mackesy; Richard Curtis, Oprah Winfrey, J. J. Abrams, and Tom Hollander.

Mackesy was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to art and literature.

On 9 October 2025, Mackesy published Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm.

Personal life Mackesy has lived and painted in South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the United States. He now lives between Brixton, South London, and Suffolk. and has helped to run a homeless project in London.