Mackesy’s illustrated début is indies’ lead Christmas hit

Debut children's book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse is proving a hit with independents in the run up to Christmas, with some bookshops reporting frustrations at not being able to replenish stocks of the title fast enough amid buoyant trading this festive season.

Bookshops around the country all picked out the charming illustrated fable by Charlie Mackesy, published by Ebury Press, as a particular favourite with customers. The book was last week named Barnes & Noble's inaugural Book of the Year, having earlier been named the Waterstones Book of the Year.

“We can’t keep it on the shelves,” said Sheryl Shurville, co-owner of the Chorleywood Bookshop. “I just keep ordering and ordering!”

"Like everyone we’re doing really well with Charlie Mackesey's The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse," said Helen Stanton, manager at Forum Books in Corbridge, Northumberland. "We were lucky we had signed copies right at the start which have long disappeared."

"The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse is doing really well," Marie Moser at the Edinburgh Bookshop said, echoed by Rye Books' owner Alastair Kenward, who added: "It is different and the illustrations are fresh. It’s original."

Frustrations were reported at “slow” reprints, resulting in having to wait between a week and 10 days to replenish stock of the title. “That was disappointing,” Shurville said, after the book was not in stock for its Civilised Sunday event.

Rosamund de la Hey, owner of Main Street Trading in St Boswells, said: "We had a few days where we hadn’t got any and were waiting—I think it’s gone on to its fourth reprint. It is a lovely, lovely book, and such an easy hand-sell because you open it up on any page and it lands on something beautiful."

Richard Drake, of Drake the Bookshop in Stockton, however, said he thought "on the whole publishers are doing a pretty good job". He added of distributor Grantham Book Services: "GBS are doing pretty well to keep up with the clamour for The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, which continues to stun everyone with its beauty."

Hazel Broadfoot, owner of Village Books, whose store is currently being featured in Visa’s Christmas advert, said she thought this year’s offering from publishers was “much better” than last year’s, welcoming the broad spread across genres that truly meant there is something for everyone.

In addition to The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, which to date has sold 152,183 copies through Nielsen since publishing on 10th October, other star titles for multiple independent booksellers that The Bookseller spoke include: Adam Kay’s The Nightshift Before Christmas (on 193,772 copies through Nielsen BookScan), The Ladybird Book of Donald Trump (31,994 copies), Lady Glenconner's life story Lady in Waiting (67,665 copies), Caroline Criado-Perez's exposé on the gender data gap Invisible Women (55,943 copies), Bill Bryson’s The Body: A Guide for Occupants (141,693 copies), Margaret Atwood’s Booker Prize-winning The Testaments (258,191 copies) and JoJo Moyes' The Giver of Stars (39,416 copies).

Broadfoot enthused: “It’s good across the board and there are titles for everybody. There are really good food books, there are fantastic biographies, children’s books are excellent, we have Philip Pullman, the selection of fiction is very good, there’s good literary fiction and there’s also really good commercial fiction... So there are plenty of things you can recommend to people. There are nice paperbacks and the range of history that’s out… I just think it’s an exceptionally good range this year.”

"It's quite surprising," she added of how busy it had been in store, "because I thought it would be very quiet with the election. Nothing's going to happen until after the election, and then people will realise it's still Christmas in any event,' I kept thinking. But actually, we have been really briskly busy and we're really pleased."

Shurville agreed the broad Christmas offering for 2019 was “stunning” and also posited the push about “shopping local” had made a difference. Another initiative she believed to be paying dividends is its Christmas catalogues. “We pay to have them distributed and customers come in with all their favourites marked up,” she said.

Up 50% on the last four weeks against last year, Drake in Stockton called it "a great season so far, more than making up for a slightly sluggish October. I genuinely think policital date changes have meant that shoppers are happier to shop, well for books anyway," he said.

Others felt they had been impacted adversely by the politics of the moment, however. Kenward said: "It is an amazing set of books out there but until everything is sorted [with the election] it is a bit quiet. The uncertainty in general is affecting retail everywhere."

"In general, I’m saying ‘steady as we go’. The election is providing bit of distraction which is pretty frustrating," De la Hey said. "There is a certain feeling of calm before the storm, before people realise they still need to get things and can’t face going into Edinburgh."

Shurville said sales revenue for the month across its two shops was the same as last year but from fewer transactions. “It looks like the average spend is bigger. So, even though there were fewer transactions, once they get in here, they buy!” she said. One recent customer exemplified this by purchasing £200 worth of books in one go, she said.

"People's minds are on other things for sure," said Shurville. "It may have been better [were it not for the election], but who knows! People have still got to buy presents for Christmas."