Setting

The short story “Kiss and Tell” by John Sam Jones is set in North Wales, close to Liverpool Bay (ll.30-32). Although the year of the events is not mentioned explicitly, the references to Elton John marrying David Furnish suggest that the events happen sometime after 2005.

Physical setting

The main physical setting is the Welsh town Rhos-On-Sea and the school where the characters teach or study. The school is not described as a place but as a community. However, the author describes the wider setting of North Wales: “After a sharp burst of rain, from an errant cloud that hung in an otherwise blue sky, a rainbow arched over the growing forest of wind turbines out in Liverpool Bay.” (ll. 28-30)

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Social setting

The story conveys more aspects about the social setting than the physical one: Welsh society and school life for teachers and students. Most of the aspects presented are related to attitudes towards homosexuality.

For example, the story presents political and social attitudes towards gays and lesbians both in Wales and in the small town where the action takes place:

By 2001 the Welsh Assembly Government was keen to hear from gays and lesbians across Wales – about their experiences of prejudice, their grievances and their aspirations. The new Minister for Education even made a thing about homophobic bullying in schools and in 2005 teachers were offered in-service training on how they could support gay and lesbian students in educational settings. (ll. 37-41)

Tony Morris, the Head of Maths and three years off retirement, came out as the father of - not one, but two gay sons; Ann Puw, one of the history teachers, talked about her lesbian sister; Jane Edwards, the only newly-qualified teacher at school and not yet twenty-five, shared that she’d grown up in a lesbian household with two mums. (ll. 45-48)

The above quotations indicate a social climate which is accepting of homosexuality, contrary to Dylan’s initial assumptions.

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