Remembering the Newsagents Top Shelf

My earliest memory of seeing an adult magazine was whilst playing in a wooded area when I was a young boy. In amongst the trees, on the ground, partially covered by twigs and leaves were some magazines, I could see a page with a photo of a naked woman, whatever adventure I was having was immediately abandoned. I quickly grabbed one of the magazines which was not covered in too much dirt, hid it under my clothing and scarpered home to investigate my newly found treasure.

It was quite difficult trying to speedily walk home with the fairly large rolled up magazine stuffed up my jumper. I felt that people I passed knew I was up to something, that at any moment they might stop me and confiscate my prize! I safely reached home, my mother no doubt asking why I was back so soon!

The discarded magazine I had found that day was not one of the milder titles available at the time that featured modest nude shots, this was the full open leg dirty magazine of the time. The memory is not exact but I now know it must have been a Whitehouse or Playbirds style magazine with a laminated cover. I can’t remember what happened to that magazine but probably after a while I panicked and dumped it back in the forest. I certainly would have remembered if my mother had found it!

Years later in the local shop as my attention moved past the sweet displays and on to various popular mags of the day such as What Hifi or some PC magazine or another, my curiosity was inevitably drawn to the top shelf. Wow, there it was….the type of magazine that I had discovered a few years back, and there were a lot of them! Feeling the shopkeeper’s wife’s eyes boring into me I quickly averted my gaze back to the safer mags and chose one. ‘I will have this please’ I said to the woman at the counter avoiding her gaze. I went home to read up on the latest gadgets but my mind was elsewhere, thinking about the glimpses I had snatched of the magazine covers on the top shelf.

Back in the eighties even the high street newsagents WH Smiths had a range of magazines for the discerning gentleman on their topshelf. Titles such Mayfair, Penthouse and Playboy were available to purchase. There was no way I was reaching for them in that shop in front of the hordes of everyday shoppers buying their birthday cards or the latest best-selling novel, plus the chance of my mother walking in at any time was a distinct possibility in my mind. If I was going to be brave enough to buy one it was going to have to be at one of the many corner shops dotted around the local area.

Front cover of Penthouse Volume 21 No 4 magazine

I am pretty certain that my first purchase of an adult magazine would have been a copy of Penthouse magazine. There was never any doubt that it would happen as my friends and I had recently found out that this months issue of Penthouse featured none other than the obsession of a fair few schoolboys and no doubt there dads at the time, Madonna, fully nude! With military precision I planned which shop I was going to, the time of day and how I would carry out the operation.

In the end my military operation fell apart somewhat, I think I loitered in the shop for about 15 minutes looking at various random items, waiting for the right moment to stretch up, grab that mag and head for the door, only just remembering that I had to pay for it on the way out. After fumbling my change all over the counter, I escaped with my prized possession…I had done it and I would proudly tell my mate but I sure as hell wasn’t going to lend it to him!

The years that followed involved many visits to various newsagents to investigate the quality of their topshelf. A disappointing range would be 5 or 6 mags with the norm being 10 or so. It never failed to amaze me how a little corner shop would have the most amazing massive selection stretching almost the entire length of the shop. In fact I am sure I recall one shop with a top-shelf of porn mags on both sides! The nirvana of newsagents would have the normal softcore publications, smaller sized pocket mags, packs of 2 or 3 magazines, mags with videos and continental porn titles that I had never seen before.

At this time I would have still been nervous about my impending purchase and timing was key. I would loiter outside a shop allowing enough time for any customers in there to leave, then I would head in, quickly choose a mag, pay and get out, simple. The reality was I couldn’t account for how many times I would walk in a shop after waiting outside for a considerable amount of time to find a customer still in there, at the counter chatting to the newsagent, and of course they would both turn and stare. A quick purchase of some mints or similar and mission aborted!

If I was lucky enough to enter an empty shop it would be uncanny how as soon as I neared the magazine display than…’ding ding’, someone would enter the door. Now, who had come in would range dependent on how much amusement the gods where having with me on that day, a dear old lady, someone I knew, a mother with her young entourage in uniforms and pigtails, a couple of nuns, you couldn’t make it up. By this time I was amassing a fair collection of mints and sweets but not many adult magazines.

The newsagents were varying in their welcome of my potential porn purchases. Some would look at you with disgust like you was some kind of weird pervert, yet they had 30 filthy magazines on their topshelf. Others would smile and slide your magazine into a brown paper bag, very nice!

The advent of the digital age and easy access to online material pretty much signalled the end of the adult print industry. There are still several publications being printed although they are much thinner than they used to be both in paper quality and the number of pages. A recent visit to a local Newsagent revealed a small magazine section at the back of the shop, on the top shelf there were about 8 titles including Mayfair, Escort and Voluptuous.

Here at Adult Magazine World we invite you to step back in time and explore a veritable treasure trove of high quality printed adult publications. If you want to reminisce to back in the day of your own magazine purchase or collection, maybe try and find that special magazine that had a model or photoset that you will never forget, or if you are of the newer generation and want to discover what us oldies used to stash in our cupboards and under our beds then browse the site and enjoy!