Nine issues of the student literary magazine Solstice were published, appearing quarterly between 1966 and 1967 and, from issue 6, three times a year until 1969. Its editors were successively Phil Short (issues 1–3), Susan Limb (issue 4), Philip Prowse (issues 4–5), Robin Ritzema (issues 4–5), Jim Manley (issue 6), Dave Miller (issue 6), Brian Morse (issues 7–8), Steve Bradshaw (issues 7–8), John Cook (issue 9) and Graham Swift (issue 9). Other roles, including that of editorial assistant, were filled by Richard Hartill, Mike Edwards, Rodney Priest, Philip Prowse, Susan Limb, Robin Ritzema, Michael Egan, Eve Johansson, Neil Mundy, Pete Thomas, Desmond Lapsley, Dave Brooks, Jonathan Roberts, Dave Russell, Caroline Wells, Steve Esplen, John Harcourt, Nicky Graves, Geoff Taylor, Anne Matthews, Graham Ritchie, David Miller, Sara Davis, Michael Glover, Veronica Forrest [Veronica Forrest-Thomson], Chips Hardy, Colin Penny, Paul Springfield, Anne Thomson, Angela Tilby and Caroline Keen. The magazine’s editorial addresses were successively 6b Castle Street, Cambridge (issue 1) and 21a Silver Street, Cambridge (issues 2–9). Enquiries for advertising space were directed to Arthur Boyars in London (issues 2–3). By the time of its fifth issue in 1967, Solstice claimed to have ‘the largest circulation of any British literary quarterly’.

Solstice published both poetry and fiction, but consistently devoted more pages to verse than prose. Graphics also appeared. Each issue was prefaced by an untitled editorial statement, and from these an account of the magazine’s aims can be derived. The original object was to publish the work of young writers, from both within and outside the universities, and while this was largely adhered to, issue 5 announced the inclusion of work by established as well as new writers, and issue 6, ‘under new management’, announced the continuation of the policy. In issue 7 and Solstice was described as providing ‘a forum in which undergraduates can measure up to the standards of better known writers’. The editors aimed to print more than one piece by each writer, in order to give ‘a fair, representative view of a certain number of writers rather than a fleeting glimpse of many more’ (Solstice 4). The magazine was never parochial, and consistently featured work from writers based outside Cambridge and beyond academia. There was a consistent interest in international poetry, issue 3 having a ‘Latin-American section’, issue 4 an ‘American supplement’, issue 7 translations by Michael Hamburger, Derek Wavell and Daniel Weissbort, and issue 8 a set of ‘Three Cuban poets’ in translations by Nathaniel Tarn.