The Erotic Review was founded in 1995 as a monthly newsletter for the Erotic Print Society; the first nine issues were a newsletter titled The Erotic Print Society Review, but in 1998 it blossomed into a full-colour magazine called The Erotic Review, which was to run in that format until the end of 2003. Its first editor was the Erotic Print Society’s founder Jamie Maclean, who passed editorial control to Rowan Pelling in 1997. After a successful tenure that saw circulation figures rise to 30,000, Pelling staged a management buyout from The Erotic Print Society in 2001. As the magazine’s parent company had been experiencing financial difficulties, Pelling was able to purchase The Erotic Review for just £1, then in mid-2003 she sold the magazine to media mogul Felix Dennis.

From Issue 12 in 1998 until Issue 34 in 2001, almost every issue included a drawing by Monica Guevera, most in monochrome but a few with her trademark bright reds and oranges. Sadly they were often crowded by dense text or pushed into a corner, so this is the first time all of her Erotic Review illustrations have been brought together such that we can appreciate her talent fully. She knew exactly what to include in an erotic drawing, and probably even more importantly what didn’t need to be included. Most budding erotic artists could learn a great deal from this ground-breaking illustrator.