The Hoxton Mini Press was handing out copies of this beautiful book at stations around London yesterday morning.

It’s a moving visual account of 861/2 year old Joseph Markovitch's life in Hackney where he has lived all his life. And it had a profound influence on the direction of my day.

Joseph has never married or had a girlfriend but he had a deep love for his mother who he cared for and looked after until her passing. I was saddened to read that he used to have a locket containing a photo of his mother, but sadly it was lost.

“My mother was a good cook. She made bread pudding. It was the best pudding you could have. She was called Janie and I lived with her until she died. I wasn’t going to let her into a home.  Your mother should be your best friend. I once had a locket with a photo in it of my mother. I had to move house a few times and it went missing. There’s no photo of her anymore. This is the shape of her locket, it was almost round.”

My first thought on reading this, was that I could remake the locket for Joseph. But sadly at the end of the book we learn that he died in 2013.

I’m really grateful to Jopeph for inspiring me to think about lockets again, because my BA Hons. degree work was partly inspired by lockets, particularly Victorian. You can read a bit about this here

As a direct result of being inspired by Josephs story I intend to design a small collection of contemporary lockets…

So watch this space 

Thank you Joseph and Hoxton Mini Press.

Ring from the Chronicle Collection: Inspired by life's journeys and chapters