The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

You may well have seen this book at the top of the bestseller list, and for good reason. Marianne asked me for the book for her Christmas when we were in Hatchards, and it is an absolute classic of practical life wisdom expressed in a charmingly humorous hand-written and illustrated story involving the main characters of the title. Everyone will have their own favourite lines, some of them arrestingly unpredictable. The mole tells the boy that he is so small while the boy replies that he makes a huge difference; and when asked what he wants to be when he grows up, he responds 'kind' and defines success as loving. The boy asks the mole if he has a favourite saying, which turns out to be "if at first you don't succeed, have some cake." "I see, says the boy, does it work?" "Every time", says the mole. Old moles, he says, wish they had listened less to their fears and more to their dreams. I had better stop, otherwise you might not go out and buy the book for yourself. Once you have done so, your heart will be touched and you will almost certainly want to buy more copies to share with your friends and family!