''Fiesta'' magazine was a British

adult magazine Pornographic magazines or erotic magazines, sometimes known as adult, sex or top-shelf magazines, are magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature. Publications of this kind may contain images of attractive naked subjects, as is ...

featuring

softcore pornography Softcore pornography or softcore porn, is commercial still photography or film that has a pornographic or erotic component but is less sexually graphic and intrusive than hardcore pornography, defined by a lack of visual sexual penetration. So ...

, published by Galaxy Publications Limited. It was a sister publication of '' Knave'', launched two years later. Launched in 1966 by the British photographer Russell Gay, ''Fiesta'' quickly became Britain's top-selling adult magazine. Dubbed "the magazine for men which women love to read", the monthly magazine's readers were responsible, in the early 1970s, for creating a feature that has been adopted in magazines worldwide: Readers' Wives. Central to this theme is the monthly "Readers' Wives Striptease" section, which shows a set of photos of a supposed wife or girlfriend of a reader being photographed by ''Fiesta'' undressing (often, but not always out of everyday clothing) to full nudity. The Readers' Wives section was the subject of a song by

John Cooper Clarke John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet, who first became famous as a " punk poet" in the late 1970s. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he released several albums. Around this time, he performed on stage with se ...

on his album ''

Disguise in Love ''Disguise in Love'' is the second studio album by John Cooper Clarke, first released in 1978. (It followed '' Ou est la maison de fromage?''). Most of the tracks are spoken over musical accompaniment provided by Clarke's band The Invisible Girl ...

''. As well as its Readers' Wives and photographic girl sets, ''Fiesta'' is built around a core of readers' letters from men and women. In addition there are male-interest features, cartoons and reviews, sexy puzzles and a regular erotic horoscope, together with ''Firkin'', an underground-comics style cartoon strip drawn by

Hunt Emerson Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

and written by Tym Manley.

Mary Millington Mary Ruth Maxted (née Quilter; 30 November 1945 – 19 August 1979), known professionally as Mary Millington from 1974 onwards, was an English model and pornographic actress. Her appearance in the short softcore film ''Sex is My Business'' ...

modelled for the magazine in 1974, prior to her exclusive signing to work for David Sullivan's magazines.

Nicholas Whittaker Nicholas Whittaker (born 1953) is a British writer of non-fiction books on popular culture, often incorporating autobiographical extracts from his own life. He was born in Shrewsbury and lived in Burton upon Trent until 1975. Whittaker has worked ...

, journalist and author of ''Platform Souls'', ''Blue Period'' and ''Sweet Talk'', worked for the company from 1980 to 1982, when he left to go and work for

Paul Raymond Publications Paul Raymond Publications is a British publisher of softcore monthly pornographic magazine titles, including '' Escort'', '' Club International'', ''Mayfair'', '' Men Only'', '' Men's World'' and '' Razzle''. The company's lawyers scrutinise the ...

, where he played a major role in establishing the new '' Razzle'' magazine. His experiences at ''Fiesta'' and ''Razzle'' are the subject of his book ''Blue Period''. ''Fiesta'' ceased production in 2020, after 54 years of publication. see final issue, Volume 54, No. 4. Note: this page combines entries for this magazine with the unrelated 1956-era magazine.

See also

References

Further reading