SPECIAL FEATURES
20 Enter the Emden: The epic last cruise of a German raider Gerald Rawling
58 Death on the Day of Love: The St Valentine's Day massacre R Hudson-Smith
100 Paradise Lost: Europe's lost pleasure palaces Paul Hudson
127 Dastardly Deeds: The rise and fall of duelling in Britain Peter Holt
154 The Tichborne Claimant: Lost heir or heavyweight hoaxer? Gerald Rattling
GIRLS
8 Corinne Russell: Hill's Angel and Page Three favourite Mario Marnoto
15 Lindsay Neil: Our Second Benny Hill Show beauty Donald Milne
24 Fiona: Our curvy courier shows us the beauty spots Ed Alexander
36 Lindsay: A long, leggy blonde John Allum
51 Patricia: Beauty from the boutique Ed Alexander
62 Pam: Our choice chambermaid John Bristow
72 Sophia: One of the merry women who set Nottingham a-quiver Roy Brewington
89 Nina: Our teen queen Basil Crawford-Smith
103 Pauline: Taking in Bournemouth's famous front John Allum
114 Frankie: Assess the beauty from the Dun Free Ed Alexander
125 Lee Ann: A chess buff ?ou'd love to check over Donald Milne
138 Angela: ' The girl who likes to keep buzzy Ed Alexander
147 Anne: Divine glamour from a third Hill's Angel Clive McLean
157 Ruth: Our golfing birdie Peter Walker
166 Melanie: Brief encounter with a girl who ho never wears knickers John Allum
174 Rosa: A russet-haired temptress Ed Alexander
HUMOUR
33 Now Showing: Film posters lampooned Peter Maddocks
67, 144 Gentlemen, That Reminds Me: Your choice jokes
163 Lewd of the Manor: A sexy send-up of peers at play Manel
192 Carrie: Carrie gets roped in for bell ringing Steve Kingston
135 The Advice Squad: Marriage guidance unmasked Brian Forbes
INFORMERS
42 Motoring: The superlative SL's from Mercedes -William Roddy
82 Wings over Old Warden: Historic aircraft in their element Malcolm English
179 Quest: Women in uniform
Features in This Issue
The Girls From The Benny Hill Show
Corinne Russell
The Advice Squad
Wings Over Old Warden
About Best of Mayfair
Mayfair is a British adult magazine for men. Founded in 1966, it was designed as a response to US magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse, the latter of which had recently launched in the UK. For many years, it claimed the largest distribution of any men's magazine in the UK. It is a softcore magazine, and thus is available in newsagents, although some larger retailers require a modesty bag to hide the cover.
Mayfair was launched by Fisk Publishing Ltd in 1966 with an August cover date. The company was controlled by Brian Fisk. Its first editor was David Campbell, and its first deputy editor was Graham Masterton. Its second editor was Woman's Own veteran Kenneth Bound. As well as nudes, Mayfair featured short stories and serious articles on such "male" interests as classic cars, trains, and military history. In its early years, one regular contributor of fiction and nonfiction was American author William S. Burroughs (who became an associate of Masterton's; Masterton later gave Burroughs a posthumous co-author credit on his novel Rules of Duel ).
A regular feature for many years was Quest, "the laboratory of human response", interviews purportedly with ordinary people (each issue featuring separate conversations with two women and one man, and occasionally couples) about sex matters, and graphic descriptions of sexual encounters. Graham Masterton initially wrote Quest as fiction, but later interviewed real people to inform the article. Another regular feature was a long-running cartoon strip featuring the misadventures of Carrie, a nubile blonde who lost her clothes in various embarrassing situations.
In 1968, Mayfair took over rival King, which had been launched in 1964, initially with backing from Paul Raymond.
The December issue of each year was usually double-sized, and featured a "review" of the models seen in previous issues. For many years, this was from the previous year, e.g. the review in Volume 16, Number 12 (December 1981) featured the models seen throughout Volume 15 (January to December 1980). In 1982, a separate and nominally annual Best of Mayfair supplement was introduced, reprinting the full photo sets and other items. This was followed in 1988 by a similar Girls of Summer supplement.
In August 1972, Mayfair featured the regular comic-strip adventures of "Carrie" with story and fully painted artwork by Don Lawrence. The strip ran for two pages a month for most issues over the next 17 years. Don Lawrence left at the end of 1975, and Mario Capaldi drew the strip from January 1976 to May 1977. In June 1977, Steve Kingston took over.
Most of the models featured were "girl next door" types whom the accompanying text claimed to be new to such work. Their pictures would be accompanied by descriptions of their everyday lives and jobs, including that of telephonists, secretaries, shopkeepers, etc. Page 3 girls were also regular features. Some of the early ones would appear full frontal (tabloid papers such as The Sun only featured topless images), but in the late 1980s most such as Samantha Fox and Maria Whittaker would only do topless appearances.
Occasionally couples, male and female models and sets of two or more girls together (though lesbianism was usually implied rather than made obvious) were featured.
