England

England is the primary broad-strokes setting for the narrative. It is a country long associated, in reputation and perhaps in fact, with emotional, physical, and sexual repression. This makes it a powerful and poignant setting for a story in which two people, on the cusp of fully understanding what it means to break through personal and cultural repressions, fail to do so.

Chesil Beach (Dorset)

The real-life Chesil Beach in Dorset, on the south-west coast of England, is one of the few shingle beaches in the UK (that is: a beach composed of rocks and pebbles, rather than of sand). Its combined view of the sea and rock-based composition are important metaphoric foundations of several narrative elements, in the present-time sections of the narrative, representing openness, in the case of the former; and the difficulty / slippery footing associated with reaching that openness, in the case of the latter...