‘Offers an alternative definition of what it means to be a man in Wales… breaks free of old clichés of masculine identity.’ New Welsh Review

‘An interracial gay couple baby-sits the two young children of a friend for a weekend; a high school boy grapples with his emergent sexuality while looking for support from the conservative adults in his life; and a mentally disturbed woman seeks vengeance against the brother who slept with her husband, in John Sam Jones’s Welsh Boys Too. These intriguing short stories look at homosexuality through the lens of Welsh culture, subtly linking homophobia to other kinds of discrimination – racism, religious intolerance – with objectivity and sensitivity.’ Publisher’s Weekly

‘Welsh Rarebit – John Sam Jones’s charming, thoughtful collection of Welsh stories, Welsh Boys Too, is a joy to read. Contemporary, yet timeless, these tales of young men living in rural Wales have a pathos and dignity to them that sustains this slim, but vibrant collection. Rustic homophobia tends to be insidious rather than blatant, and Jones’s subtlety of language and style highlight this, as does the wild, unsophisticated backdrop of the slopes of Cader Idris, or the seagulls circling the cliffs of the barely inhabited island of Enlli. Unsophisticated these men may be, unscathed they are not – but they are survivors, and their stories are as uplifting as they are sad. Treat yourselves.’ Sebastian Beaumont in Gay Times

‘Welsh Boys Too is a bold and adventurous collection of stories inspired by the lives of gay men in Wales. Funny, poignant and ultimately revealing, it introduces John Sam Jones as a new voice in the world of Welsh fiction. After spending years away from home, studying in California and as a chaplain in Liverpool, Jones returned to North Wales to be saddened by the prevailing homophobia within society and began, through writing, to explore the lives of the gay men who lived there. In a sequence of short, pointed stories, seen through the eyes of eight men, he discloses, in an often humorous manner, how they try to live their lives in a society where rejection is second nature.’ The Western Mail

‘…John Sam Jones has balanced this short anthology well; each story earns its space and does not take away from any of the other works presented. An example of this balance is the collection’s ability not to shy away from sex whilst not sensationalising it either.’ Adam Lewis in Gair Rhydd

‘Cymreictod ynddo’i hun yw un o’r pethau sy’n ein gwneud ni’n fwy cul… ac mae’r iaith Gymraeg yn arf yn erbyn pobl hoyw. Dyna un rheswm pam fod Cymro Cymraeg wedi penderfynu cyhoeddi ei straeon byrion Cymreig eu naws yn uniaith Saesneg… Mae Welsh Boys Too gan John Sam Jones yn gasgliad o wyth stori fer sy’n trafod gwahanol agweddau o fywydau dynion hoyw yng Nghymru.’ Cerys Bowen, Golwg

‘The eight quite short stories in this thin yet evocative first-ever collection of queer fiction from Wales open the door, with fluid charm, on yet another culture’s take on coming out, AIDS, homophobia and domestic togetherness. Though undeniably contemporary there is at the same time an other-worldliness to the author’s world; the familiar is filtered through the gaze of a culture which is as distinct from that of America, or even England, as, for example, Italy’s might be, or that of Greece. Makes for fiction that’s both absorbing and entertainingly anthropological.’ Richard Labonte