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The Journey is Home
In this clear and absorbing memoir, John Sam Jones writes of a life lived on the edge. It’s a story of journeys and realisation, of acceptance and joy. From a boyhood on the coast of Wales to a traumatic period as an undergraduate in Aberystwyth, and on to a scholarship at Berkley on the San Francisco Bay as the AIDS epidemic began to take hold, before returning to Liverpool and north Wales to work in chaplaincy, education, and sexual health. A journey of becoming a writer and chronicler of his experiences with award-winning books and the somewhat reluctant compulsion to become a campaigner for LGBT rights in Wales. The adventure of running a guest house in Barmouth where he eventually became Mayor with his husband, a German academic, whom he had married after a long partnership. Just days after European Referendum they put the business on the market... and then moved to Germany. John is still on that journey.
250 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2021
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25 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 2, 2021
4.5 stars
A beautiful & meaningful memoir of identity, family, belonging, & community.
[What I liked:]
•I like the writing style. Easy to read, at points beautiful; it has a nice cadence & rhythm.
•I resonated with Jones’s pained feelings about the divisions & ugliness Brexit stirred up. There are a lot of parallels to what was happening simultaneously in the US under the Trump administration. I appreciate his thoughts on national identity—how it overlaps & conflicts with ethnic, linguistic, familial, & other identities, & perhaps is much more fluid than we to think it is.
•The chapter about Jones’s mother’s ordeal with dementia was very touching. I’m going through something similar with my grandma right now.
•I really, really appreciate Jones’s account of his spiritual journey as a gay Christian, & his time at a theological seminary & in ministry. A lot of his thoughts & experiences I can relate to in some way as a queer christian myself. Especially his reflections on communion/the Eucharist. (& heck, he even is/was a fan of the St. Louis Jesuits, whose music I was brought up on, & I still have records of!)
•Jones’s career in public health, health education, community work, etc. was very interesting to read about.
•Overall, there is such an openness & vulnerability & gratitude for life in Jones’s telling of his story. It feels authentic & deep but not self-obsessed, which I think can be a fine line to strike in memoir.
[What I didn’t like as much:]
•The organization of the story took awhile to get the hang of. It’s thematically arranged rather than chronologically. Sometimes when recounting the far past, he uses present tense grammar. It works, it just took getting used to.
CW: homophobia, sexual abuse/assault/rape, terminal illness, suicide
[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]
A beautiful & meaningful memoir of identity, family, belonging, & community.
[What I liked:]
•I like the writing style. Easy to read, at points beautiful; it has a nice cadence & rhythm.
•I resonated with Jones’s pained feelings about the divisions & ugliness Brexit stirred up. There are a lot of parallels to what was happening simultaneously in the US under the Trump administration. I appreciate his thoughts on national identity—how it overlaps & conflicts with ethnic, linguistic, familial, & other identities, & perhaps is much more fluid than we to think it is.
•The chapter about Jones’s mother’s ordeal with dementia was very touching. I’m going through something similar with my grandma right now.
•I really, really appreciate Jones’s account of his spiritual journey as a gay Christian, & his time at a theological seminary & in ministry. A lot of his thoughts & experiences I can relate to in some way as a queer christian myself. Especially his reflections on communion/the Eucharist. (& heck, he even is/was a fan of the St. Louis Jesuits, whose music I was brought up on, & I still have records of!)
•Jones’s career in public health, health education, community work, etc. was very interesting to read about.
•Overall, there is such an openness & vulnerability & gratitude for life in Jones’s telling of his story. It feels authentic & deep but not self-obsessed, which I think can be a fine line to strike in memoir.
[What I didn’t like as much:]
•The organization of the story took awhile to get the hang of. It’s thematically arranged rather than chronologically. Sometimes when recounting the far past, he uses present tense grammar. It works, it just took getting used to.
CW: homophobia, sexual abuse/assault/rape, terminal illness, suicide
[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]
November 10, 2025
I absolutely loved the audio version of this book. John Sam Jones has such a warm, calming voice — that North Wales accent is lilting and beautiful — and his writing has this natural rhythm that makes you feel like you’re sitting down with an old friend over a cup of tea. I trusted him right away.
There were so many parts that really stayed with me: his mother’s heartbreaking struggle with dementia and the family secrets that surfaced afterward; his honest reflections on Brexit and how divided it made people feel; and his spiritual journey — trying to reconcile being both gay and Christian. I was especially moved by the story of his work in public health during the early days of the AIDS crisis, and his incredible act of offering a kidney to a close friend who became family.
The whole book feels deeply human, open, and real — full of stories that were never hidden, but never told before. It’s one I’ll return to again and again. Highly recommended.
There were so many parts that really stayed with me: his mother’s heartbreaking struggle with dementia and the family secrets that surfaced afterward; his honest reflections on Brexit and how divided it made people feel; and his spiritual journey — trying to reconcile being both gay and Christian. I was especially moved by the story of his work in public health during the early days of the AIDS crisis, and his incredible act of offering a kidney to a close friend who became family.
The whole book feels deeply human, open, and real — full of stories that were never hidden, but never told before. It’s one I’ll return to again and again. Highly recommended.
April 22, 2022
This is a beautiful memoir of a life forged by attitudes, events and the pandemic of our recent past. It is particularly relevant as conversion therapy continues to be 'legal' for some of our fellow citizens who do not fit into the narrowness of a cultural normative. John Sam Jones is deeply reflective and shows kindness and compassion without a hint of self obsession or self-sympathy. This book certainly fits into my 'something understood' category.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews