Modern Review (London)

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Modern Review was the name of a London-based magazine reviewing popular arts and culture, founded by Julie Burchill, Cosmo Landesman and its editor, Toby Young. It was published from 1991 to 1995 and principally financed by Peter York. Amongst its high-profile contributors were Nick Hornby, Will Self, James Wood and Camille Paglia. At one point, Paglia and Burchill conducted a long-running slanging-match by fax, which was reproduced in full in the pages of the magazine.

The Review's mission statement was to cover "low culture for high-brows" and it aimed to give equal cultural weight to Roland Barthes and Bart Simpson.

The magazine's circulation started at around 5,000 copies, rising to a peak of 30,000 with the controversial Elizabeth Hurley edition, containing a cassette tape of the actress reading passages of erotic prose from Burchill's latest book. By 1995, with the magazine hit by financial difficulties, the circulation subsided to 10,000 copies and soon after it ceased publication when its founders fell out, Toby Young "torching" the magazine with its final issue after Burchill had an affair with writer Charlotte Raven.

Publication was started again in 1997 by Burchill with Raven editing, but the second, much glossier and more mainstream incarnation survived for only five issues.