diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e027a5a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+/vendor
+phpunit.xml
+composer.lock
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1bf6b485..de9b2027 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,2 +1,10 @@
 Lendable JSON
 =============
+Provides an object oriented interface for handling json in php.
+
+Instead of failing silently, this lib will throw exceptions on json errors.
+
+## Installation
+```bash
+composer require lendable/json-serializer
+```
diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5836a236
--- /dev/null
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+{
+  "name": "lendable/json-serializer",
+  "description": "JSON serializer/deserializer with an OOP interface",
+  "type": "library",
+  "authors": [
+    {
+      "name": "Lendable Ltd",
+      "email": "dev@lendable.co.uk"
+    }
+  ],
+  "autoload": {
+    "psr-4": {
+      "Lendable\\Json\\": "lib/"
+    }
+  },
+  "autoload-dev": {
+    "psr-4": {
+      "Tests\\Lendable\\Json\\Unit\\": "tests/unit/"
+    }
+  },
+  "require": {
+    "php": ">=7.1",
+    "ext-json": "*"
+  },
+  "require-dev": {
+    "phpunit/phpunit": "^7.4"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/lib/DeserializationFailed.php b/lib/DeserializationFailed.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..91680b99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/DeserializationFailed.php
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Lendable\Json;
+
+final class DeserializationFailed extends \RuntimeException implements Failure
+{
+    public function __construct(int $errorCode, string $errorMessage, ?\Throwable $previous = null)
+    {
+        parent::__construct(
+            \sprintf(
+                'Failed to deserialize data from JSON. Error code: %d, error message: %s.',
+                $errorCode,
+                $errorMessage
+            ),
+            $errorCode,
+            $previous
+        );
+    }
+}
diff --git a/lib/Failure.php b/lib/Failure.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..bb0b98ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/Failure.php
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Lendable\Json;
+
+interface Failure extends \Throwable
+{
+}
diff --git a/lib/InvalidDeserializedData.php b/lib/InvalidDeserializedData.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..551e3306
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/InvalidDeserializedData.php
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Lendable\Json;
+
+class InvalidDeserializedData extends \RuntimeException implements Failure
+{
+    public function __construct(string $unexpectedType)
+    {
+        parent::__construct(sprintf('Expected array when deserializing JSON, got "%s".', $unexpectedType));
+    }
+}
diff --git a/lib/SerializationFailed.php b/lib/SerializationFailed.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..97a447fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/SerializationFailed.php
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Lendable\Json;
+
+final class SerializationFailed extends \RuntimeException implements Failure
+{
+    public function __construct(int $errorCode, string $errorMessage, ?\Throwable $previous = null)
+    {
+        parent::__construct(
+            \sprintf(
+                'Failed to serialize data to JSON. Error code: %d, error message: %s.',
+                $errorCode,
+                $errorMessage
+            ),
+            $errorCode,
+            $previous
+        );
+    }
+}
diff --git a/lib/Serializer.php b/lib/Serializer.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8596ef39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/Serializer.php
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Lendable\Json;
+
+final class Serializer
+{
+    /**
+     * @throws SerializationFailure
+     */
+    public function serialize(array $data): string
+    {
+        $serialized = \json_encode($data);
+
+        if (\json_last_error() !== JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
+            throw new SerializationFailed(\json_last_error(), \json_last_error_msg());
+        }
+
+        \assert(\is_string($serialized));
+
+        return $serialized;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @throws DeserializationFailure
+     * @throws InvalidDeserializedData
+     */
+    public function deserialize(string $json): array
+    {
+        $data = \json_decode($json, true);
+
+        if (\json_last_error() !== JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
+            throw new DeserializationFailed(\json_last_error(), \json_last_error_msg());
+        }
+
+        if (!\is_array($data)) {
+            throw new InvalidDeserializedData(\gettype($data));
+        }
+
+        return $data;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/phpunit.xml.dist b/phpunit.xml.dist
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..95aa0e56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/phpunit.xml.dist
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<phpunit colors="true"
+         convertErrorsToExceptions="true"
+         convertNoticesToExceptions="true"
+         convertWarningsToExceptions="true"
+         processIsolation="false"
+         stopOnFailure="false"
+         bootstrap="vendor/autoload.php">
+
+    <php>
+        <ini name="error_reporting" value="E_ALL" />
+    </php>
+
+    <testsuites>
+        <testsuite name="unit">
+            <directory>./tests/unit/</directory>
+        </testsuite>
+    </testsuites>
+
+    <filter>
+        <whitelist>
+            <directory>./lib/</directory>
+        </whitelist>
+    </filter>
+
+</phpunit>
diff --git a/tests/unit/SerializerTest.php b/tests/unit/SerializerTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5c7fcbe4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/SerializerTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Tests\Lendable\Json\Unit;
+
+use Lendable\Json\DeserializationFailed;
+use Lendable\Json\InvalidDeserializedData;
+use Lendable\Json\SerializationFailed;
+use Lendable\Json\Serializer;
+use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
+
+/**
+ * @covers \Lendable\Json\Serializer
+ * @covers \Lendable\Json\SerializationFailed
+ * @covers \Lendable\Json\DeserializationFailed
+ * @covers \Lendable\Json\InvalidDeserializedData
+ */
+final class SerializerTest extends TestCase
+{
+    /**
+     * @var Serializer
+     */
+    private $serializer;
+
+    /**
+     * @test
+     */
+    public function it_can_serialize_an_array_of_scalars_to_json(): void
+    {
+        $result = $this->serializer->serialize(['foo' => 'bar', 'baz' => [1.03, true, 'foobar']]);
+
+        $this->assertSame('{"foo":"bar","baz":[1.03,true,"foobar"]}', $result);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @test
+     */
+    public function it_throws_when_serializing_if_an_error_encountered(): void
+    {
+        $this->expectException(SerializationFailed::class);
+        $this->expectExceptionMessage('Failed to serialize data to JSON. Error code: 5, error message: Malformed UTF-8 characters, possibly incorrectly encoded.');
+
+        $this->serializer->serialize(["\xf0\x28\x8c\xbc" => 'bar']);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @test
+     */
+    public function it_can_deserialize_from_a_json_string_to_php_scalars(): void
+    {
+        $result = $this->serializer->deserialize('{"foo":"bar","baz":[1.03,true,"foobar"]}');
+
+        $this->assertSame(['foo' => 'bar', 'baz' => [1.03, true, 'foobar']], $result);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @test
+     */
+    public function it_throws_when_deserializing_if_an_error_encountered(): void
+    {
+        $this->expectException(DeserializationFailed::class);
+        $this->expectExceptionMessage('Failed to deserialize data from JSON. Error code: 4, error message: Syntax error.');
+
+        $this->serializer->deserialize('{"unclosed":"bad","object":"json"');
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @test
+     */
+    public function it_throws_when_deserializing_if_the_result_is_not_an_array(): void
+    {
+        $this->expectExceptionMessage(InvalidDeserializedData::class);
+        $this->expectExceptionMessage('Expected array when deserializing JSON, got "boolean".');
+
+        $this->serializer->deserialize('true');
+    }
+
+    protected function setUp(): void
+    {
+        $this->serializer = new Serializer();
+    }
+}