Rowan Pelling

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

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

After graduating, Pelling worked at the satirical magazine Private Eye. She supported Shirley Porter in her campaign against the District Auditor during the Homes for votes scandal. She went on to work for GQ magazine, where she met her husband Angus Mackinnon. 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.

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 and is a columnist for the Daily Telegraph. 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". It switched from print to online-only after seven months.