The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse is now available as an audiobook
- Posted by
- Hollie Richardson
- Published
Looking for a calming audiobook to accompany on your lockdown walk? The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charles Mackesy might be the perfect listen.
A few months ago, when we were in the midst of the pandemic’s first lockdown in the UK, artist Charlie Mackesy managed to capture the mood of the nation with an illustration he created for a special Stylist magazine cover.
At a time when many of us hadn’t held our loved ones in weeks, he drew two women hugging each other. “One day x,” was written underneath, assuring us that one day this will be over and we will embrace each other again.
It was exactly what we needed to see and read at that time. And for the 717,000 people who follow Macksey on Instagram, this ability to perfectly read the room and give hope came as no surprise.
Mackesy is the man behind The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse series, which you’ve likely seen being shared across the internet. The series of illustrations show the four unlikely friends navigate life’s ups and downs, while sharing life lessons and messages of hope. They are so popular that the drawings were recently collected and turned into a book. And now, a reading of that book has been recorded for an audiobook.
In the hour-long The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse audiobook, Mackesy introduces the story before reading it aloud. Explaining his decision to turn it into an audio story, he says he wants to “draw it in your imagination” for people who are unable to see the illustrations. He also wants to create an escapism for people who want to switch off, close their eyes and step into another world.
Sharing a snippet on his Instagram this week, Mackesy wrote: “This is a tiny bit of the audiobook. I just took a little speaker to a field and played it while I filmed the landscape. It sounds a bit muffled but I thought you might like to hear it.”
And while Mackesy tells the tale, music by Max Richter (Black Mirror, My Brilliant Friend) and a bespoke composition for the Fox written by Isobel Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, War and Peace, Emma) plays in the background for a tranquil listen.
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse audiobook is released on 12 November. And if you want to check out more brilliant audiobooks out there, we’ve rounded up 32 of the best ones to plug into.
Images: Penguin