Episode 53
In this week's episode of Atypical Daydream, host Josh Caldwell sits down with teacher, academic, and former European tour manager Matthew Roberts.
Matthew takes us through a life that has always been pointed outward, from a childhood in Wales that planted the seeds to a first job in the Canary Islands at eighteen, teaching in China, and eventually guiding coaches full of people across Europe with the right music cued for every moment. His stories move between the profound and the joyful in a way that's entirely his own.
Bluesky: @matqbritholiday.bsky.social
Queering the British Holiday - Society of Antiquaries of London by Matthew Roberts
January 27, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm (lunchtime lecture)
2026 marks key anniversaries in British travel history, from Gulliver’s Travels to Butlin’s first holiday camp. This lecture traces the often-hidden presence of LGBTQ+ lives in the British holiday, revealing how liberation, desire, and surveillance shape three centuries of leisure. Through the Grand Tour, Music Hall coastal culture, Butlin’s camps, and Club 18–30, we explore travel as both method and metaphor—a queer pilgrimage into the liminal spaces of pleasure.
Matthew Roberts is a writer in his fourth year of a part-time PhD in Text, Practice as Research at the University of Kent, examining Queering the British Holiday. His critically acclaimed plays have appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and been featured in The Guardian, The South Bank Show, BBC 5 Live and LBC. After a decade in the tourist industry, he taught English in China, Liverpool, Manchester and London, and has presented research at major national and international conferences. He also volunteers at Queer Britain: The National LGBTQ+ Museum.
Read the full episode script HERE
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