Rowan Pelling

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Rowan Pelling
Born (1968-01-17) 17 January 1968 (age 56)
Toys Hill, Kent, England, UK
NationalityBritish
EducationWalthamstow Hall
Alma materSt Hugh's College, Oxford
OccupationJournalist
Years active1990s–present
Known forjournalist, broadcaster, editor

Rowan Dorothy Pelling (born 17 January 1968) is a British journalist, broadcaster, writer and stand-up comedian who first achieved note as the editor (or "editrice", to use her term) of a monthly literary/erotic magazine, the Erotic Review.

Education[edit]

Pelling was educated at Walthamstow Hall, a day independent school for girls in the centre of the commuter town of Sevenoaks in Kent in South East England, followed by St Hugh's College at the University of Oxford, from which she graduated in 1991 with a degree in English Literature.

Life and career[edit]

After graduating, Pelling worked at the satirical magazine Private Eye. She briefly carried out research for Shirley Porter’s legal team during the Homes for Votes scandal, talking to Andrew Hosken when he was carrying out his investigation into Porter.[1] She went on to work for GQ magazine, where she met her future husband Angus Mackinnon.[2] In 1997 she transformed Jamie Maclean's Erotic Print Society's slim foolscap newsletter into the Erotic Review, a popular magazine whose circulation peaked at over 30,000. She sold the magazine in 2004.[3]

Pelling has contributed to a variety of newspapers and magazines, including regular columns for the Independent on Sunday, Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, the Daily Telegraph, GQ, and Jack. She was a judge of the 2004 Man Booker Prize[4] and is a regular columnist for the Daily Telegraph.[5] She is the mother of two sons and lives in Cambridge.

In 2017 Pelling launched a new magazine, The Amorist, branded as "for devotees of love & passion".[6][7] It switched from print to online-only after seven months.[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hosken, Andrew (2006). Nothing Like a Dame. Granta Books. ISBN 978-1-86207-809-3. p. 317.
  2. ^ Matthew Bell, "'Erotic Review' goes for cybersex", The Independent on Sunday 6 June 2010
  3. ^ Tait, Simon (13 June 2009). "'Erotic Review' back to titillate – and educate". The Independent. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  4. ^ Heard, Chris (26 August 2004). "Booker judge hails writing talent". BBC News | Entertainment. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  5. ^ "Columnists: Rowan Pelling". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  6. ^ "Issue 1 is at large!". The Amorist. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  7. ^ Featherstone, Emma (26 April 2017). "'An erotic Woman's Hour': The Amorist follows boom in indie magazines". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  8. ^ Mayhew, Freddy (11 December 2017). "Erotic magazine The Amorist moves online-only after seven issues in print". Press Gazette. Retrieved 22 February 2019.