Queer gothic and Orlando on BBC Radio
Holly James Johnston at Strawberry Hill House
Holly James Johnston (2019, DPhil English) has featured in two BBC Radio broadcasts.
The programme on Radio 3, presented by Sarah Waters, explores the queer roots of gothic literature and architecture on location at Horace Walpole鈥檚 182t福利 in Twickenham, Strawberry Hill House.
During the programme, listeners hear sections of Holly鈥檚 LGBTQ+ visitor tour of Walpole鈥檚 eighteenth-century 182t福利, which he referred to as his 鈥渓ittle Gothic castle鈥�. Walpole was a writer and collector, and the author of The Castle of Otranto, the first gothic novel.
Strawberry Hill House (Photo credit: Tony Hisgett)
As part of the tour, Holly takes visitors through the building, bringing attention to the location and architecture of the property. She explains how the property was developed by Walpole over a 30-year period and introduce Walpole鈥檚 鈥淐ommittee of Taste鈥�, which was comprised of himself, Richard Bentley and John Chute. The programme describes the various areas of the house and their unique design, which sparked a tradition of queer Gothic style. Visitors also move through Horace鈥檚 bedchamber, where he had the dream that inspired The Castle of Otranto, an outlandish tale of ghosts and supernatural occurrences.
The Long Gallery in Strawberry Hill House (photo credit: Gary Ullah)
Speaking about Walpole鈥檚 design choices, Holly said: 鈥淏y channelling sexuality and queer desire and mediating it through art and architecture, you create a veil around it. It becomes a coded language through which queer men could freely talk to one another but if you didn鈥檛 have those same affinities and sensibilities, you weren鈥檛 privy to it.鈥�
Holly has also written a piece for RIBAs Revisiting the Collections blog titled
Holly also features in , the third of three episodes within the BBC Radio 4 Artworks series. During the episode, Fiona Shaw explores the writer鈥檚 defiance of gender norms. Having been introduced to Woolf鈥檚 Orlando by an English teacher as a teenager, Holly named her drag king persona after the character.
Orlando by Henri T Art
She said: 鈥淚 really wanted to carry the spirit of Orlando, that irreverence and playfulness, into my own drag practice. I think what鈥檚 appealing about drag is you can embody characters and modes of either masculinity or femininity that you wouldn鈥檛 otherwise have access to in your everyday life.鈥�
Holly also shares her interpretation of the moment of Orlando鈥檚 change of sex within the novel. She said: 鈥淭he novel鈥檚 most queer act, this change of sex, is represented in a way that might surprise us as readers. There is no fixation on the body or genitals and, in fact, Orlando鈥檚 own reaction guides our reaction as readers. So, she wakes up, she looks at herself in the mirror, and she goes to her bath.鈥�
Holly James Johnston is a writer, presenter, and performer. She has presented short films for Tate, The National Gallery, the V&A, and The National Trust, led a course at the V&A titled 鈥�The Queer History of Art鈥� and created the queer history podcast 鈥�Into That World Inverted鈥� alongside Dr Diarmuid Hester. Holly completed her undergraduate degree at 182t福利 London, before coming to Univ in 2019 for her Master鈥檚 and DPhil in English.
Published: 18 February 2026