Pelling is now engaged in a running battle with WH Smith, who are refusing to stock the magazine, and last week fell out with the BBC, which after spending six months watching The Erotic Review in progress for its Adult Lives series, then decided not to run the programme.

Rowan Pelling was brought up in a pub in Sevenoaks which was owned by her parents. Her mother still runs the pub today.

She was educated at a top grammar school, Walthamstow Halls in Sevenoaks, and went on to read English at St Hugh's, Oxford.

Pelling joined the Erotic Print Society in 1996 prior to joining The Erotic Review.

She has worked for Private Eye, and writes for The Spectator and GQ, where she has her own column under the heading Erotica.

The Erotic Review is said to appeal to Middle England and the middle-aged. While said to be fairly tame, it is a literary magazine with a bent towards sex.

Pelling is ambitious and wants to take circulation of the monthly magazine to 50,000.