DR’s P1 program “Første række” devoted a segment on Monday to the revived British magazine Erotic Review, with author Elisa Lykke and host Ane Cortzen discussing written erotica in the studio.
According to DR, Cortzen brought a copy of Erotic Review into the studio and presented it to Lykke, who is an author, caster and PR agent. Lykke is behind the Danish erotic short story series “Kvindefantasier” and read aloud from one of the magazine’s texts.
Cortzen described the content as tasteful, and said it could be left out in the open without anyone calling it smut. Lykke joked that the layout is close to resembling the Danish interior magazine Bo Bedre.
DR notes that Erotic Review first appeared in 1995 and had 30,000 subscribers at its peak. The title was undercut by the rapid growth of internet porn during the 2010s and then lay dormant, which is why Cortzen said she was surprised to find it back in print.
The New York Times reported on August 8, 2026 that Erotic Review is now a twice-annual literary magazine based in Britain. Its approach presents subjects as sexy without necessarily being explicitly sexual.
As reported by SG Media, the relaunch came in 2024 under editor and publisher Lucy Roeber, with Saskia Vogel as deputy editor. The outlet describes the current version as an elevated literary journal about desire.
Written erotica
Lykke told the program she has been drawn to what she calls porn in writing since she was a teenager. She grew up with copies of Ugens Rapport in the cupboards and Playboy posters in the basement, she said.
Per DR, she was always gripped by the magazine’s section “De Grå Sider”, where the stories described ordinary people in recognizable settings. The absence of images left more room for her own imagination, she added.
Lykke said the appeal of the Erotic Review stories is that they reflect women’s lived sexual lives. She compared that to searching Pornhub for specific scenarios, and said the written version works better for her.
She launched “Kvindefantasier” in 2021, a series in which well-known Danish women share their secret sexual fantasies. The project has so far produced nine books, and one volume also includes fantasies from men.
According to Lykke, the two groups approached the task differently, with many romantic stories among the men’s contributions. She also pointed out that amateur is one of the most popular search terms in online visual pornography.
The segment closed with the cover of the first issue of the relaunched magazine, showing a close-up of a woman’s mouth holding an egg. Lykke said the image made her think of ovulation and of a gag ball.
