''Modern Review'' was a 1990s

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-based magazine reviewing popular arts and culture, founded by writers

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill (born 3 July 1959) is an English writer. Beginning as a staff writer at the ''New Musical Express'' at the age of 17, she has since contributed to newspapers such as ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''The Sunday Times'' and ''The Guardi ...

and Cosmo Landesman, then married, and

Toby Young Toby Daniel Moorsom Young, Baron Young of Acton (born 17 October 1963), is a British social commentator and life peer. He is the founder and director of the Free Speech Union, an associate editor of ''The Spectator'', creator of '' The Daily S ...

, who became the editor. All three were members of the Groucho Club. The magazine was published from 1991 to 1995 and principally financed by

Peter York Peter York (born Peter Wallis; 1944) is a British management consultant, author and broadcaster best known for writing ''Harpers & Queen's'' ''The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook'' with Ann Barr. He has worked as a columnist for ''The Indepen ...

. The ''Review'' said its goal was to cover "low culture for high-brows." It aimed to give equal cultural weight to

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...

and

Bart Simpson Bartholomew Jo-Jo "Bart" Simpson is a character in the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' who is part of the titular family. Bart made his television debut in the short " Good Night" on '' The Tracey Ullman Show'' on Apri ...

. The magazine's circulation started at around 5,000 copies. Amongst its contributors were writers

Nick Hornby Nicholas Peter John Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English writer. He is best known for his memoir '' Fever Pitch'' (1992) and novels ''High Fidelity'' and '' About a Boy'', all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work frequen ...

Will Self William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English writer, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Se ...

, James Wood,

Camille Paglia Camille Anna Paglia ( ; born April 2, 1947) is an American academic, social critic and Feminism, feminist. Paglia was a professor at the University of the Arts (Philadelphia), University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1984 until ...

and Charlotte Raven. At one point, Paglia and Burchill conducted a long-running slanging-match by

fax Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other out ...

, which was reproduced in full in the pages of the magazine."The Battle Of the Bitches: Fax Off and Die You Bitch!"
1993 exchange. Retrieved on 23 June 2007. "Out of all proportion to its meagre resources, it soon comprehensively redrew the cultural map, forever wiping the high-cultural smirk from the face of Britain's critics." Circulation rose to a peak of 30,000 with what was known as the

Elizabeth Hurley Elizabeth Jane Hurley (born 10 June 1965) is an English actress and model. Her best-known film roles are Vanessa Kensington in '' Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'' (1997) and as the Devil in '' Bedazzled'' (2000).cassette tape The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...

of the actress reading passages of erotic prose from Burchill's latest book and generated considerable controversy.

"Underlying the magazine's demise was one aspect of what Young sees as its success: 'Within a few years, all the broadsheets were duplicating what the Modern Review was doing. With the Sunday Times, that was actually quite conscious. The culture section was modelled on the Modern Review. And they poached our writers.'"

By 1995, with the magazine hit by financial difficulties, circulation subsided to 10,000 copies. Soon after this, the founders fell out and the magazine ceased publication. Burchill had an affair with writer Charlotte Raven, separating from her husband Landesman; and Young "torched" the magazine in the final issue.John Harris, "'I supplied talent and drugs'," Review: BBC4 2005 documentary, ''When Toby Met Julie''
''The Observer'', 28 June 2005 By 1997 Burchill had acquired financial support and started publication of ''Modern Review'' again, with Raven editing. This second version, much glossier and more mainstream, survived for only five issues. In 2021, the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' reported that the magazine would be returning once more. Burchill was not involved, but Young was on board, commenting: “I think it’s going to be much more serious than the magazine I edited.”Robbie Griffiths, "Londoner’s Diary: Hellraising Modern Review to return — with a serious side"
''Evening Standard'', 26 August 2021 The relaunched title has yet to appear.

References

External links

''The Observer'', 28 June 2005 {{italic title 1991 establishments in England 1995 disestablishments in England Cultural magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1991 Magazines disestablished in 1995 Magazines published in London Visual arts magazines published in the United Kingdom