[Originally posted on LA Times HS Insider on April 16, 2021] British-born Charlie Mackesy, author of Barnes and Noble 2019 book of the year “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” and award-winning illustrator answers questions for the first “What is and How Does?"
What is the last show you binged on Netflix and how does that relate to how you view society?
I binged on “Friends”, and I binged on it because it makes me laugh and it’s timeless and a good escape, but it doesn’t really reflect anything on how I see society. I think society is far more complicated than six 20-somethings living together talking about relationships and drinking the same coffee in Central Perk. That’s my honest answer and my last binge.
What is your favorite color and how does that correlate with how you have salvaged your creativity as an adult?
My favorite color is blue. I wear a lot of blue clothes, my eyes are blue. I love the color of the sea and the sky and I think for me it symbolizes water. I think I’ve always been creative, so I’ve never had to salvage it as an adult but certainly blue has played a big part in my work. It’s often present when others are not.
How do you take your coffee and how does that relate to your political opinions?
My coffee drinking varies an awful lot. I go through phases of not drinking coffee at all, to drinking lattes, to then drinking cappuccinos. But I always have it with milk. It bears no relationship to my understanding of politics, other than my views change and I’m open to change and open to being wrong.
What’s a song that you have on repeat and how does that relate to your upbringing?
“Clay Pigeons” by John Prine, I listen to a lot. It relates to my upbringing because I knew people like him when I was a boy who were very relaxed, open and was evidently on a journey and sometimes wanted to start all over again and talked about it. And there is something very beautiful about that to me, something real and honest and heartwarming, and it reminds me of my upbringing.
What is your preferred mattress style and how does that represent what you believe to be the most important social cause of the 21st century?
I quite like a hard mattress for my back, and I know that many people don’t sleep on mattresses they sleep on the floor, and I think empathy is the important thing to us at the moment. The most important social cause of the 21st century is alleviating poverty and if we learn to understand each other and empathize with one another, we can address it.
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