Cleaner Janice knows that it is in people's stories that you really get to know them. From recently widowed Fiona and her son Adam to opera-singing Geordie, the quiet bus driver Euan and the pretentious Mrs. "YeahYeahYeah" and her fox terrier, Decius, Janice has a unique insight into the community around her. There is so much empathy to be found within the keeper of stories. It’s about friendship and relationships. It’s a story about second chances, guilt, forgiving yourself, starting over, rebuilding and living life. Basically, this is a sweet book that means very well and has its moments of sunshine. But it could have been so much more had it been handled differently. I don’t know how I would have felt about this had I read it, but I know that the audiobook was certainly a wonderful way of getting to know this story.

The cover is simply gorgeous. If they make all book covers so delightful, I’ll have a tough time stopping books from entering my TBR mountain. When you are a child, you don’t ever think of yourself as young. You are just you, and will take up guilt and responsibility without noticing that they are far too large for you and that they are really things an adult should be wearing.” And the writing is pretty good, it is engaging and the flow is just perfect for this kind of book, which is way out of my comfort zone and therefor quite difficult to rate and review.What a perfect little gem of a book I really loved it a rare beautifully crafted piece of perfection .Two perfects on one sentence seems poor writing but sometimes just sometimes it’s needed ! This one was a bit of a slow burn, but I did enjoy it and might just add “Vanity Fair’ to my reading pile now. Life-affirming, hopeful fiction that can definitely fit into the ‘Uplit’ genre, this wonderful novel will definitely be on my list of ‘Best Books of 2022’. Highly recommended! Janice is a cleaner, she's married to Mike and they have a grown up son Simon. Janice spends her days catching buses, cleaning people’s houses, some of her customers are nice to her and others don’t consider she’s a human being and has feelings.

I deal in other people’s stories every day. Everyone does indeed have a story to tell, and like Janice, I believe it is a privilege when someone chooses to share their story with you. That’s what is at the heart of The Keeper of Storiesand what made it a poignant and lovely book to get lost in. Cleaner Janice knows that it is in people's stories that you really get to know them. From recently-widowed Fiona and her son Adam; to opera-singing Geordie; and the awful Mrs "YeahYeahYeah" and her fox terrier, Janice has a unique insight into the community around her. When Janice starts cleaning for Mrs B - a shrewd woman in her nineties - she finally meets someone who wants to hear her story. But Janice doesn't have a story to share. Mrs B is no fool and knows there's more to Janice than meets the eye. What is Janice hiding?After studying history at university, I moved to London to work in advertising. However, in my spare time I studied floristry at night school and eventually opened my own flower shop. I soon came to appreciate that flower shops offer a unique window into people’s stories and eventually I began to photograph and write about this floral life in a series of non-fiction books. Later, I continued my interest in writing when I founded my fountain pen company, Plooms.co.uk. Janice is a wonderful woman whose authenticity pulls you along…the breadth and originality of supporting characters makes this debut an immersive delight’ Dorset Magazine