Maxim: my part in its triumph

sean thomas fondly recalls the raucous, crude, irreverent birth of lad mags

Plans for billion-dollar casinos are not unknown in Las Vegas. But last week a new casino was announced that will be significantly different. This one will be branded with the name of a magazine: Maxim.

This is a poignant development for me. Ten years ago, I was present at the inception of Maxim - when it was just a bunch of young blokes sitting in a London office. We were part of that original wave of lad mags, when everyone was still saying men wouldn't buy general interest journals. Within a few years FHM, Loaded and Maxim were shipping millions of copies.

Of course, some people decry this success. They say that lad mags