The best book I’ve read for a while, I couldn’t stop reading it. A Yorkshire lady Jo Sorsby is jilted and seizes the opportunity to move to north London to look after her uncle’s stationery shop where she can decide what she wants to do with her life. During the course of running the shop she makes a number of friends who she helps and they help her put her life back together. A delightful story brilliantly written and definitely recommended.

This is a heart-warming story and I loved Jo, the central character. It explores relationships, loneliness, and friendship. Overall, the story had far more potential.

Joanne (Jo) Sorsby, 38, is temporarily taking care of her uncle Wilbur's small shop selling hardware and stationery. Her uncle, diagnosed with dementia, has moved to a care institution, hoping it will be a short move. The neighbouring shops have - Lando optician, and Eric tattoo artist. After a hilarious episode, she realizes Eric is the optician and Lando the tattoo artist! Jo feels a sense of loneliness – her relationship with James ended 4 months back. At school, Lucy was her best friend, who is now married to Sanjeev. But they have grown apart now. Her parents live in a farmhouse with her brother Chris now managing most things. Her younger brother Ben manages a livestock market. Jo has lived with the label of “Average Jo” since long – she has felt she has been that in everything she has done.

Malcolm, who is retired and now writing a book is her first and regular customer. The other regular customer is Ruth, a vicar who has moved from her Parish recently. Jo forms a bond with Eric, Lando, Malcolm & Ruth. She starts writing letters to Lucy with her experiences in the shop, hoping it will help to re-vitalize her friendship. After a few weeks, Lucy visits her, with a chance for them to reduce the distance which has crept in between them. Jo also takes stock of her life shortly after, and what she wants to do next.

This is a feel-good book and I found myself rooting for Jo to find direction and happiness in her life. There are a few refreshing episodes in the story – the most striking being a conversation between Malcolm and Jo. As Jo confides her relationship frustrations to Malcolm, he explains gently that James was her lover but not a friend, and that is important in a relationship. James appears not to have had her aspirations & best interests in mind. Malcolm also says he grew distant from a friend which she should not do. The characters of Jo, Malcolm & Ruth are very well explored. I would have liked to see more of Eric & Lando’s characters. I felt Jo’s new developing relationship to be poorly explained. The story has quite a few touching moments, and yet I felt it fell short of potential.

This is a book you should read when in the mood for something gentle, easy and heart-warming.

My rating: 3.25 / 5.

Jo is at the end of a long relationship as she returns home not knowing what to do with her life. When her mum tells her that her Uncle Wilbur has been hospitalised with Alzheimers and she needs someone to take over his stationary shop in London,
Jo volunteers thinking some time to herself in a different place would be good for her.

I loved this book but I don't know how to describe it.
We hear about the people who use the shop and Jo is helpful to everyone and makes friends quickly.
The main people are Ruth the runaway vicar and Malcolm a lonely man in his seventies. The three of them become friends and bond over the stories that Malcom tells them about the people who are buried in Highgate cemetery which he spends his time researching.
This is a story of friendship and finding new friends in unexpected places. It's a story of moving on and starting life again and it's a story of different kinds of love.
A special mention has to go to the ending of this book,it brought tears to my eyes.
This is the second book by Sally Page. I loved her debut novel, The Keeper of Secrets, and like this one it is a little bit different from other books.
A good read.

What a gem of a book!
Jo is heartbroken when her relationship ends so it seems a good idea to leave her beloved North East to look after her Uncle Wilbur's shop in London while he recuperates with Jo's parents.
The shop is a mixture of hardware and stationery, slightly chaotic and a bit run down. But it brings back memories of time spent with her favourite Uncle and Jo is soon making little changes and sprucing the place up.
Jo happily chats to her customers and takes time to get to know them. There's the policeman ashamed of his handwriting and particularly Malcolm who seems sad and lonely and Ruth, who Jo soon realises has a big secret.
There are also Lando, neat and dark haired and Eric, tattooed, big and blond who's laugh sounds like a walrus. A n optician and a tattoo artist.
As Jo puts her own mark on the shop these people become increasingly important to her but she yearns for her best friend Lucy, whose dungarees Jo wears regularly. Can she get their friendship back on an even keel?
This book is about relationships; new, old, family and romantic. It's also about how we perceive ourselves and are perceived by others. It's a little bit about bullying (you'll know them when you find them) and it's a lot about love in all it's guises.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Jo is happy to work at her families shop. She gets to meet different individuals every day. They make her see her life in a different perspective. This book was well written.

A wonderfully gentle book about love and friendship and being true to yourself. There are tears, regrets and heartbreak but also fun in unexpected places, new and old relationships developing, and people becoming who they were always meant to be.

I loved the characters: Malcolm and Ruth, Eric the Viking, and of course, Jo. They have stayed with me and I'd love to meet them again. Perhaps they could all get together in another book - I'm sure they have plenty more adventures in them.

The scenes in Highgate cemetery were delightful - never thought I'd ever say that - and the 'ghosts' entertaining. A heart-warming summer read.

It is 18 months ago that I felt privileged to read The Keeper of Stories. I remember writing in my review, ‘Isn’t it wonderful when you find a new favourite author?’. This comes from someone who thought she only liked to read crime thrillers (me), until I experienced the beautiful and captivating writing of Sally Page. I have been looking for her name ever since and was thrilled when I was given the opportunity to read The Book of Beginnings. I just can’t tell you how much I loved this book. I went to bed last night at 8pm to start reading it (I’m old – I go to bed early!) and was still there at 1pm today when I finished it. At the end of the last chapter my cheeks were wet with tears, and after reading the short epilogue my partner came upstairs to find out why I was sobbing.
Everything about the story moved me. Fountain pens for a starter! I have always loved to write - letters, not books – and I am determined now to replace the pen of my dreams (which I owned but which gave up the ghost many years ago) and purchase the bottles of coloured inks which I used to own and treasure, and to write a long letter to my very best friend.
There isn’t one character in this story that I didn’t love – Jo, Ruth and Malcom, what a trio! – and the ghosts (I’ve already researched 2 of them), and Eric, and all the others. Wonderful, just wonderful. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers, and to Sally Page who deserves all the success in the world.

A joyous book that flows easily, even when there was not happening that much I was glued to the page. The simplicity of basic needs such as not to be lonely. Or to be enough which is a theme very much alive these days as it should be with this demanding society with all its green grass, expectations, and pressure. Yet... people are more alike than they are different.

And of course the humility and comfort of writing with a fountain pen. When you are a fan of those, you have an anecdote or happy memory to go with it, don't you?!

Delightful, just what I needed (being ill with ME, housebound, and still not used to it after 18 years...) therefore The Book of Beginnings is very worthy of a place on my for-a-rainy-day shelf on Goodreads :)

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.

Warm and emotional

Heartwarming and just lovely

All about lonliness and the power of friendshps

This will warm the cockles of your heart

A sweet book, with likeable characters, and a real feel-good story. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as The Keeper of Stories as it wasn't quite as humorous, and was very slightly cliched, but it is still a very entertaining read.

This was a joyful read and a wonderful celebration of friendship, moving on and stationary! There’s a lovely bunch of characters starting with Jo who is looking after her uncle’s shop in London whilst recovering from a relationship breakup which led to her having to leave her job too. Jo really misses her best friend but feels things aren’t right between them but it’s the new friends she makes in neighbouring shop keepers and especially two certain customers that help her move forward. Both Ruth and Malcolm have some great backstories and I love the unlikely friendship and especially the ghosts. This is a really well crafted and uplifting read and I personally preferred this to the authors first book. 9/10

A really charming little book; I loved it. The characters of Joanne, Malcolm and Ruth were brought to life perfectly. As for the ghosts of Highgate Cemetery meeting up on Christmas Eve, this was inspiring. What really won me over was that the people buried in the cemetery each played a big part in this novel in the telling of their separate lives. The research by the author must have been extensive and the listed bibliography so very helpful, as I was curious to learn more about these famous people and their colourful lives. It was also good to have a happy ending that still left room for imagination.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers HarpersCollins, for this advance copy.

The Book of Beginnings by Sally Page is another extraordinary read by the author of The Keeper of Stories. This book is about friendship and making new friends and reconnecting with old friends. Jo Sorsby is the main female character in this story and how she looks after her uncle’s stationary shop when he is taken ill and later is diagnosed with dementia. She has just been dumped by her boyfriend Julian with whom she had hoped to marry and have children.
As you learn more about Jo, you realise that none of her family or friends thought he was good enough for her. She makes friends with two of her customers, Malcolm a septuagenarian and Ruth, the runaway vicar. Everyone you meet has a story to tell maybe you just need to find time to listen.
A fascinating book with wonderful stories to tell the reader, you just need to sit back, relax and read.
Highly recommended

What an amazing read this book is! I had not realised till the end that the author was the author of Keeper of Stories, which was also a five star book for me. I am in awe of Sally Page’s writing. Her characterisation is flawless, I was drawn immediately into the life of Jo, and the people she meets when she leaves the north east to travel to London. She is taking over her favourite uncle’s stationery shop while he is ill, and she herself is nursing a broken heart. Her initial isolation and loneliness is soon displaced by meeting with the owners of the neighbouring shops, and the many interesting people who come into her shop.
In the process of reevaluating her life, her future, her previous love affair, and her seemingly fractured relationship with her best friend Lucy. Jo’s develops friendships with unlikely people of different ages and backgrounds. Together they embark on a fascinating historical writing project based on famous, long dead people from London.
How this project unfolds and develops is ingenious in its originality.
This book does not really slot into a particular genre, rather it is a standalone work of genius, only equalled by Keeper of Stories. I am sorry to leave behind the story of Jo and her sojourn in London, now I have finished the book. I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity to read the advance copy of this book.
It is beautifully written, and so refreshingly original. I highly recommend it.
My thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

This was a srtange story to begin with but I got more and drawn.in. I loved the area of London it was set and the non London bit in the moors is where I live now. So all that was excellent . I love the Highgate cemetery part. The 3 characters who became friends were lovely. The stationery shop was my kind of heaven. The fountain pens I wanted to try… The way the author talked about past people. I defiinetly want to find out more about some of the people in the cemetery. You also had the controlling boyfriend and the best friend . You just have to read it . Loved it. The ru away vicar was great and her back story and a great ending. Perfect

What a wonderful book! Amazing characters and a just lovely story. Highly recommended. A perfect holiday read.

Thanks to Harper Collins Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC of this book.
I absolutely loved this book. There are quite a lot of characters but you can imagine them all as they are so well described and you soon fall in love with them all too. The concept is fairly simple but it develops and turns beautifully and is a page turner. I will certainly be recommending it as a read to my book club because I think they will all enjoy it too. Perfect holiday read as well.

I loved the keeper of stories,, and the last sentence in my review was that I would be looking forward to Sally pages next novel. I was there for delighted to see this one and it’s just jump straight to the top of my to be read pile.
The novel deals with loneliness and the power of friendship , it looks at the way friendships can develop in unexpected ways, and in unexpected places. In the snow for the narrator needs to a small London hardware and stationery shop to look after it when her uncle becomes unwell, we follow her as she meets her neighbouring store, storekeepers, and develops lasting friendships with the people who she meets.

I loved the way that the author shares her personal love of Fountain pens with us novel definitely made me want to pull out my collection of Fountain pens and restart my journalling
As a recent convert to the joys of cold water swimming, I was delighted to find out the novel mentions, the camaraderie of cold water, swimming in it
I enjoyed the inventive ghost stories from Highgate Cemetery and Malcolms gradual change from gray to vibrant colours as his friendship with the women develops
He also has a clear easily read prose style, and I found the novel a heartwarming emotional memorable read.

I would recommend the novel to those who love a relationship based novel
I read nearly copy of the book on NetGalley UK. The book is published in the UK on the 28th of September 2023 by HarperCollins UK Harper fiction.

This review will appear on NetGalley UK, good reads and on my book blog bionicSarahsbooks.wordpress.com

The Book of Beginnings by Sally Page

Read The Keeper of Stories in my book group and we all loved it so was really looking forward to read this one.

Jo Sorsby knows she is hiding from her past when she steps in to look after her uncle’s stationery shop. glimpsing the lives of her customers between the warm wooden shelves, as they scribble notes with fountain pens and browse colourful notebooks, distracts her from the life she has left behind.
Yet far from home, Jo feels adrift . . .
When she meets Ruth, a vicar running from a secret, and Malcolm, a septuagenarian struggling to write his first book, she realises that she isn’t alone.

Sally writes about women who don't quite feel they fit in with the norm , and are watching life happen in front of them whilst looking in from a distance. But what they don't understand they are the watchful strong , women who can draw people together and make things happen.
Really enjoyed it.

This is an enjoyable read with clearly defined characters that bring the story to life. We see Jo, Ruth and Malcolm each facing a crisis of confidence as they gradually come to terms with their different situations. It is a lesson to us all that trust, love and friendship can be found in the most unlikely circumstances.