Publisher to give out free copies of Jewish book to cheer up ‘Blue Monday’ commuters

Free copies of a heart-warming book about a real-life Jewish East Ender will be handed out to lift the spirits of commuters on “Blue Monday”.

I’ve Lived in East London for 86½ Years, which tells the story of Joseph Markovitch, will be given to travellers at London Tube stations at the beginning of next week, on what is considered the day of the year when people feel most miserable.

Staff at the publisher, Hoxton Mini Press, decided to make the gesture when 1,500 copies of a reprint of the book were discovered to have a blemish on the back cover and could not be sold.

Most books with defects are sent to be pulped, but the publisher’s co-founder Ann Waldvogel said that would have felt “a bit like a supermarket having to throw out perfectly good fruit because each contained a small dimple or blemish”.