Charlie Mackesy reveals much of his new book was lost when iPad was stolen

The new book sees the much-loved characters return

Writer and illustrator Charlie Mackesy, famous for best-selling book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse, has revealed it took six years for him to complete his next book, because his iPad full of ideas was stolen.

His latest book, Always Remember, sees the return of the much-loved characters from his previous book, but the author believes he could have finished it earlier had he been able to keep hold of his iPad.

"A lot of drawings got stolen from my car," he explained.

"I started doing rough drawings and writing situations for the book on the iPad, because it was easier. So, I basically put together a lot of the pages and it hadn't backed itself up."

Charlie says his beloved dog Barney is now "flying"

The thief and the iPad

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse was a lockdown sensation, and in 2021 it was named the biggest selling adult hardback of all time in the UK.

Speaking in the art studio of his Brixton flat, he visibly winces as he remembers what happened.

"I literally ran into the Co-op to get some snacks and chatted to Jen who works there and came back out again. I hadn't locked the car. I'm an idiot."

He said the iPad had been on the passenger's seat and he that he had lost "quite a lot" of the book.

The next few nights were spent with him lying in bed going: "What was that? What did I say?" and trying to remember the missing sections.

After that, the way he dealt with the iPad's loss sounds like the sort of positive advice that made his first book such a phenomenon during the pandemic.

"Like all these things, you either get knocked and give up or go, 'This isn't going to stop me'. This room is full of drawings, so I could go back and look and dig deep and try and remember.

"It was just another little setback, I suppose, that makes you question whether what you are doing is worthwhile."

'Very hard, very raw'

The theft was not the only major blow that Mackesy experienced during the creation of Always Remember.

He lost his "lovely mum" two years ago, and his beloved dog Barney, the inspiration for the Mole character, also died.

"He was 19. He's flying now," Mackesy says wistfully.

"It was very hard, very raw, because animals you are with 24 hours a day and it wasn't easy."

For the last few years, the 62-year-old has been trying to work out how to come to terms with simultaneous extreme success and debilitating grief.

There have been Oscar and Bafta wins for the animated short film of the first book, while publishing records have been broken for the most consecutive weeks on the Sunday Times bestsellers list.

But at the same time, he has had to deal with death of a number of loved ones.

"Big issues are indiscriminate. Everyone has to go through them," he nods.

"And just because you have been successful with something doesn't mean you are not going to suffer. It's part of being human.

"Life is both wonderful, and beautiful and difficult. And it's important to talk about it."

Charlie Mackesy's iPad full of ideas was stolen from his unlocked car

And boy have people wanted to talk to him.

Mackesy describes how during lockdown he received "terrifying numbers of emails" through his website, remembering one occasion when his phone said that he had 86,000 unread emails.

"While I'm eating spaghetti or asleep, the book is still busy," is how he describes it.

Many were from nurses and doctors in Covid wards, and teachers without pupils, who would print out his illustrations as a way of encouraging others.

His way of dealing with the impossible demands was to limit himself to spending about 45 minutes a day replying to as many messages as he could. However, on nights when he could not sleep, he admits that he would simply keep going.

Mackesy also describes the privilege of meeting people who say they are only alive because of one of his drawings, recounting the tale of one 19-year-old who queued at a signing, simply to tell him that he had "stayed".

By this he meant that he decided not to end his life and that he decided that it was brave to ask for help.

"If we had made the book just for him, it would have been worth it," muses Mackesy.

"This is how I define success – hearing from real people."

Some of the trees which Charlie has planted in Suffolk

When it comes to how he spends his earnings from the book, it is not so much a case of wild living, more rewilding.

"Well, I pay the rent a bit better than I used to," he surmises. "But I'm in the same house wearing the same old jumper," he adds, before revealing his one big extravagance – planting 2,000 trees in Suffolk.

"I've become obsessed with trees. I've bought some land and I just can't stop. Even on the train here I was looking up buying some alder trees, some red alder.

"Some bird cherry trees, because it brings the land alive. This land was very silent when I got it, now it's full of butterflies and bees. It's wild. I can sit there and go, 'Look at all this. This wasn't here before.'

"There's an emptiness to living in a certain way, and if you can just do something that might help someone somewhere or do something for the environment... To give back in some way is a good thing."

I gently ask if part of his motivation is to replace the some of the vast number of trees which must have been cut down to produce the millions of copies of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which have sold.

"I can't believe you've said that," he laughs with mock incredulity.

"I'm doing it because I love it and it's a good thing. Trees live longer than we do and we know that they are good for the Earth. And they are beautiful. They just take a while."

This is said by someone who should know, Mackesy having found overnight success shortly before turning 60.

The mole always wants cake

His future plans involve working on a new project involving a girl and a elephant, there is a planned collaboration with the V&A Museum, and he hopes to create a non-blank blank journal, featuring encouraging messages, designed to make the empty page less intimidating.

He will also not stop putting pen to paper.

"I can't avoid this feeling that if I just do another drawing, I might hear from a lady in Australia who can't get up in the morning, or a guy who's in rehab. It's a desire to connect in a way that is a life giving."

He pauses before adding, "I'm not very good at explaining why I do things."

But there is no disputing one thing that he will do from now on - locking his car door when he pops into the Co-op.