Razzle is a British soft porn magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

, founded in 1983, published by Paul Raymond Publications

Paul Raymond Publications

Paul Raymond Publications is a British men's softcore pornography publisher which releases ten pornographic magazine titles each month; Escort, Club International, Just Girls, Mayfair, Men Only, Men's World, Razzle, Swing Mag, Club DVD and Escort DVD.Paul Raymond had launched his first magazine,...

. It currently focuses on amateur style pornography

Pornography

Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

, offering cash for any photos of "readers' wives" printed: in the past, however, several notable glamour models were featured, including minor celebrity Joanne Guest. It also includes the traditional "true" stories.

There was an earlier UK men's magazine of the same title that dates from the 1930s to the late 1950s. This was a pocket format title, which featured a colour centre spread by the illustrator George Davies.

The name Razzle gains a fair bit of mainstream attention, having been mentioned on numerous British comedy programmes, including Meet Ricky Gervais

Meet Ricky Gervais

Meet Ricky Gervais was a chat show written and hosted by the comedy writer and performer Ricky Gervais. It was produced by Talkback for Channel 4 in 2000 and ran for one series on Friday nights....

, Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere

Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere

Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere was an award-winning British comedy television show on Channel 4 starring and written by Peter Kay and Patrick McGuinness. All the episodes were also directed by Kay. It began on 12 November 2004 and ran for six 30 minute episodes up until 17 December 2004, with each...

, and in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous

Absolutely Fabulous

Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character. It also stars Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, along with June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks...

where it is implied that Patsy once posed for the magazine (albeit in the early 1970s). It is also mentioned in Men Behaving Badly

Men Behaving Badly

Men Behaving Badly is a British comedy that was created and written by Simon Nye. It follows the lives of Gary Strang and his flatmates, Dermot Povey and Tony Smart It was first broadcast on ITV in 1992...

and Bottom

Bottom (TV series)

Bottom was a British sitcom television series that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who star as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates living on the dole in Hammersmith, London...

, and in Little Britain

Little Britain

Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...

, when Lou buys the magazine for Andy

Lou and Andy

Lou Todd and Andy Pipkin are fictional characters from the cult BBC TV and radio show Little Britain, played by David Walliams and Matt Lucas respectively. Andy's catchphrases include, "Yeah I know", "Want that one" and " Don't like it", while Lou's catchphrase is "What a kerfuffle!"Lou is kind,...

. There is a song by Ian Dury

Ian Dury

Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...

 and the Blockheads, entitled "Razzle in my Pocket". However, this is a reference to the 1950s version of the magazine (the song was written in the 1970s).

Despite the market for softcore pornography decreasing in the UK, presumably due to a combination of the internet, and more extreme material being available, Razzle is still successful, having launched some spin off titles including Razzle Extreme, The Best of Razzle and Razzle Readers Wives.

Razzle is published by the late Paul Raymond's publishing house, whose other publications include Club International, Escort

Escort (magazine)

Escort is a British men's adult magazine, or softcore magazine, which falls under the description of pornography, or erotica.By 2011, Escort was in its 31st year, or volume. The content is a combination of photographs and text, with the photographs almost entirely being those of partially or...

, Just Girls, Mayfair

Mayfair (magazine)

Mayfair is a British adult magazine for men. Founded in 1965, it was designed as a response to U.S. magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse, which had recently launched in the UK. For many years it claimed the largest distribution of any men's magazine in the UK.-Fisk Publishing era:Mayfair was...

, Men Only and Men's World.

Early Days

Nicholas Whittaker, journalist and author of Platform Souls, Blue Period and Sweet Talk, worked for the company from 1982 to 1987, and played a major role in establishing the new Razzle magazine. In its first format Razzle was 48 pages and sold for 50p. He wrote of his experiences and the formation of the new magazine in Blue Period.