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''.

Career

Mackesy began his career as a cartoonist for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'', before becoming a book illustrator for

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. He also worked with

Richard Curtis Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, producer and film director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known primarily for romantic comedy films, among them '' ...

on the set of ''

Love Actually ''Love Actually'' is a 2003 Christmas romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. It features an ensemble cast, composed predominantly of British actors, many of whom had worked with Curtis in previous film and television proje ...

'' to create a set of drawings to be auctioned for

Comic Relief Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic epis ...

; he has continued to work with the charity that he loves. He was selected to work on Nelson Mandela's Unity Series project, a lithograph project working together with Mandela on the drawings he made. His bronzes can be found in public spaces in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, including

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

and the Brompton Road. His paintings have been exhibited widely, most frequently with galleries in London and New York. His work has been featured in books, private collections, galleries, magazine covers, street lamp posts, school classrooms, cafés, women's safe houses, churches, prisons, hospital wards, and countless other public spaces around the world. Mackesy was contacted by an editor who had seen his drawings on Instagram and subsequently published with her on

Ebury Press Ebury Publishing is a division of Penguin Random House, and is a publisher of general non-fiction books in the UK. Ebury was founded in 1961 as a division of Nat Mags and was originally located on Ebury Street in London. It was sold to Centu ...

. '' The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, was'' first published in October 2019, and has spent over 100 weeks on the Sunday Times Bestsellers List top ten; it is the longest Sunday Times Hardback Number One of all time. His book was selected as the

Waterstones Book of the Year The Waterstones Book of the Year, established in 2012, is an annual award presented to a book published in the previous 12 months. Waterstones' booksellers nominate and vote to determine the winners and finalists for the prize. Award winners recei ...

2019 and the Barnes and 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 The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by '' The Bookseller''. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the Nationa ...

in 2020. Mackesy was amongst the winners of the 202
Nielsen Bestseller Awards
with '' The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse'' achieving Platinum status. All titles that achieve Platinum status are inducted into the "21st century Hall of Fame", which now includes 149 titles. In 2020, eight books passed the Platinum Award million copy sales threshold. Mackesy was awarde
Maddox Gallery Artist of the Year
at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in 2020 and Illustrator of the Year at the

in 2021. Mackesy co-directed and co-wrote the animated short film based on the book. In March 2023, Mackesy and

Matthew Freud Matthew Freud (born 2 November 1963) is head of Freud Communications, an international public relations firm in the United Kingdom. Early life Freud is the son of the actress June Flewett and the writer and German-born British politician Sir Cl ...

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, who was a childhood friend of Mackesy's,

, Oprah Winfrey,

J.J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as ''Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' For ...

and

Tom Hollander Thomas Anthony Hollander (; born 25 August 1967) is an English actor. As a child Hollander trained with the National Youth Theatre and was later involved in stage productions as a member of the Footlights and was president of the Marlowe Soc ...

. Mackesy was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the

2024 New Year Honours The 2024 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to art and literature.

Personal life

Mackesy grew up in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

and attended

Radley College Radley College, formally St Peter's College, Radley, is a public school (independent boarding school for boys) near Radley, Oxfordshire, England, which was founded in 1847. The school covers including playing fields, a golf course, a lake, an ...

and

Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham Queen Elizabeth High School (QEHS) is a coeducational high school and sixth form located in Hexham, Northumberland, England. History The school was founded in 1599. Thomas Stackhouse, afterwards an Anglican clergyman and theologian, was headma ...

. He also briefly attended university twice, but left on both occasions within a week. Mackesy’s paternal grandparents were Major General

Pierse Joseph Mackesy Major-General Pierse Joseph Mackesy, (5 April 1883 – 8 June 1956), born in Dublin, Ireland was a British Army officer who, early in the Second World War, led the attempt to recapture Narvik in April–May 1940 in the ill-fated Norwegian cam ...

and writer Leonora Mackesy (born 1902), who wrote Harlequin romances as Leonora Starr and Dorothy Rivers. He has lived and painted in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. He resides between Brixton, south London and Suffolk with his dog Barney. Away from art Mackesy co-run
Mama Buci
a honey social enterprise in

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

, and has helped to run a homeless project in London.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackesy, Charlie 1962 births Annie Award winners British artists British painters British writers Living people Directors of Best Animated Short Academy Award winners Writers who illustrated their own writing Officers of the Order of the British Empire