They then choose to lay siege to the fox, surrounding Mr Fox's hole and waiting until he is hungry enough to come out. The farmers are ridiculed for their persistence, but they refuse to give up and vow not to return to their farms until they have caught Mr Fox. The Foxes manage to escape by burrowing further beneath the ground to safety. The three farmers then dig up the Foxes' burrow using spades and then excavators. Tired of being outsmarted by Mr Fox, the triumvirate devise a plan to ambush him as he leaves his burrow, but they succeed only in shooting off his tail. To feed his family, he makes nightly visits to local farms owned by three cruel, rude, wicked and dim-witted farmers named Boggis, Bunce and Bean, whereupon he seizes the livestock available on each man's farm chickens from Boggis, ducks or geese from Bunce, and turkeys from Bean. Mr Fox is an anthropomorphic, tricky, and clever fox who lives underground beside a tree with his wife and four children. Two audio readings of the novel were released, one with the author narrating, and another with actor Martin Jarvis narrating. In 2012, Mr Fox appeared on a Royal Mail commemorative postage stamp. The novel was also adapted into a musical in 2016, and an opera in 1998 which in 2019 was recorded by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera. In 2009, it was adapted into a stop-motion animated film by Wes Anderson and included the voice of George Clooney as Mr Fox. The story is about Mr Fox and how he outwits his farmer neighbours to steal their food from right under their noses. Later editions have featured illustrations by Tony Ross (1988) and Quentin Blake (1996). The first Puffin paperback, first issued in 1974, featured illustrations by Jill Bennett.

Knopf in the U.S., with illustrations by Donald Chaffin. It was published in 1970, by George Allen & Unwin in the UK and Alfred A. Fantastic Mr Fox is a children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl.

Fantastic mr fox book online