book review: My Name is Angel by Rhea Coombs

This is the autobiography of Rhea Coombs who was for some time a street girl in South London. I wanted to read it because some of the places that she writes about are familiar to me. She used to ply her trade in New Park Road near to Brixton Hill. What she wrote has filled in a few gaps in my understanding of what went on, including what it is like in a hostel for drug addict girls and what it is like inside a crack house

Rhea tells us about her childhood. Her mother was a hippy and they moved around a lot. It wasn't an unhappy childhood but she didn't have a stable home life. From early teens she lived with men who were abusive. The third one seems to have been a violent psychopath who harmed not only her but also her son.

She liked to go to raves and took speed and ecstasy. When crack cocaine became available, she and her friends tried it. She worked for a while in Soho in one of the clip joints. These are places which I hope don't exist any more where men are fleeced often for hundreds of pounds.

She writes of her relationship with an Indian man from a privileged background who worked in the clip joint threatening tourists if they didn't pay exorbitant amounts of money for overpriced drinks. She said she met him years later in a hostel when he was ravaged by crack and heroin. Later she worked for Nigerian fraudsters using stolen cheque books.

Rhea lived in a hostel for some time. I think this could be St Mungo's in Clapham. It couldn't help her at all with her problems. She doesn't mention Tooting Bec Common, but she does say she went to Clapham Common at night to pick up men, often taking them back to her crack house.

As a crack addict she avoided crack houses to begin with but ended up helping to run one. She details the selfish lives of the visitors. One of them took up residence uninvited in her flat and only left when threatened by her ex-partner. The ex-partner could then see how she lived and decided he would look after her children. Addicts might begin with smoking heroin, would progress to injecting it into their arms (Rhea details the procedure for both crack and heroin), and then inject into the groin when they ran out of functioning veins. Often they have to have legs removed because of abscesses. Other health problems include heart attacks, strokes, pneumonia, hepatitis and HIV.

This is the only place apart from Sebastian Horsley's autobiography where you are told what it feels like to take crack and heroin. Eventually she comes across Spires, gets off drugs, gets her children back, and starts working as a drugs counsellor for Spires.

Rhea charts her descent into deep drug addiction. Cannabis was the start, then speed and ecstasy. Millions of people will have done this and not gone on to addiction. She starts using 'base speed', which I had never heard of. It comes as a paste and is 10 times stronger than ordinary speed. .

Her first experience of crack.

To those who have no wish to be chemically altered it's difficult to describe just what it is about the sudden euphoric rush, the sense of absolute confidence in your own invincibility and the (very) temporary filtering out of painful problems that crack offers. Wise people lead even, tranquil lives and decide to forgo that moment of euphoria because they understand only too well the jittery paranoia which trails in its wake, the compulsive picking off of invisible blemishes on the skin, the maddening imprint on the brain of the first joyful experience, which is never quite repeated. That taste which lingers deep in the DNA can literally drive users crazy when they can'd get their hands on more.

Her first experience of heroin.

The first time I tried heroin my whole body was suffused with a peaceful glow. I could taste it first of all on my tongue, then all my tastebuds woke up to it, swiftly followed by a warm rush through my veins - liquid safety. Nothing could puncture my bubble of protection once the drug took hold. It gave me a lightness and a heaviness of being, all rolled into one. I could feel my troubles being rinsed away, I had a sensation of being bathed in holy water. My pain was cured (for a while).

Her experience of 'speedballing'.

I developed my own rituals within rituals and soon learnt how to speedball - injecting crack and heroin together. Speedballing is the most dangerous way of all to take illicit drugs. I started off by smoking a small hors d'oeuvres rock of crack followed by a speedball main course, and finally a heroin-only dessert, after which I slumped into a syrupy sleep. I had got to the point where I couldn't bear to use crack without heroin or heroin without crack. Only that specific, intense blend would do.

It's not just her own descent that she charts.

Not everyone fitted the stereotype of estate dweller with few prospects. One beautiful young woman, whose accent sounded to me exactly like the Queen's, began, timidly at first, to frequent crack houses. She had expensively high-lighted shoulder-length blonde hair and designer clothes. By the time I met her I was a very experienced visitor to crack houses. With a group of other people, I offered to score her some crack to protect her from the volatility of the crack house she was about to enter. 

'The dealer in theat house is quite heavy,' I warned her. 'Would you like me to go and score for you? I'll meet you back here on the edge of the estate in fifteen minutes.' 

Gratefully she pressed £100 into my hands. To my eternal shame I headed straight for another crack house and spent her money on drugs for myself and the group of people I was with. I occasionally see her selling sex on the streets of south London. Her looks are beginning to go and she's lost a couple of teeth. Crack is a great leveller.

what I have done this year

I have been trying to save money so I haven't done much. I have been to two places in Liverpool, a brothel and a Thai massage place. I have also been to a massage place in Chester.

massage in Chester
I had been to the place in Chester before but just for a half hour massage. Nothing sexual happened. I thought I would go back and have an hour massage and use their steam room. I paid £40 for a half hour in the steam room and an hour massage. I had been given a pair of big baggy shorts to change into. The steam room was all white with plastic seats. The steam filled the room making it very warm and damp, all I could see was white like being in a cloud.

After half an hour the girl came to get me. She told me I needed to take a shower then come into the massage room. She was pretty and looked about 18. I took the shorts off and after the shower wrapped myself in a towel. When the girl came into the massage room I explained that I had taken my shorts off. I wasn't sure what type of place this is, although the other girl hadn't seemed to mind I wasn't wearing anything. She said she would get me another pair for me to wear.

While I was on my tummy being massaged I didn't try to talk to her. When I turned over I did. I asked her if it was mostly men or women who came to this place. They do beauty treatments for women so I suspected it was mostly for women. She said it is mostly men. I wanted to know if they stay open late especially on Fridays and Saturdays, because this is the sort of place where a sexual service is provided, like a hand job.

She wore a uniform and had her hair on top of her head in a knot. I thought she looked quite sexy. She was a local English girl. Finally I asked her what other services are provided at this place. She gave me a list of beauty treatments such as nail painting but nothing about hand jobs. So either they don't do that or they don't put girls who do on the day shift. The place has a Thai name and is run by a Thai woman.

brothel in Liverpool
In the local Liverpool newspaper I saw an ad saying that an Eastern European girl was available in Kensington. There is somewhere called Kensington in Liverpool. I phoned and was told it was £60 per hour. This is really cheap, about half the price I would normally expect to pay. She texted me the directions, the entrance was at the back of Prescot Road. I had to go along an alleyway and then up some stairs.

I wondered what I was letting myself in for, but inside it was very nice. There were two women there, one was a lot older and spoke no English at all. I wasn't given a choice, I was expected to go with the older woman. She was quite beautiful, she must have been a beauty in her 20s, and she smiled a lot and laughed a few times. She let me finger her and she gave me some oral sex with a condom. I came while wanking myself, two of my fingers in her pussy. At the end she wrapped a towel around herself which then fell off. She has quite a nice body. She opened the window then lit a cigarette. She offered me one so I was walking along Prescot Road smoking a cigarette which I haven't done in years.

Thai massage in Liverpool
There's a new Thai massage place in Liverpool, in Rice Lane. I went in there and there were two women but neither were attractive. I said I would have a half hour massage which I think was £20. Not only was she not attractive but she didn't seem friendly either. The room was OK. She started massaging my legs and worked her way up. At one point she was kneeling on my back which sometimes happens in Thai massage. She was wearing a short dress.

It was a good massage. Towards the end she offered to wank me. I said no because I didn't fancy her, although she looked nicer in the dim room and she was becoming friendlier. She asked me if I was sure I didn't want her to wank me. I said I would come back another time and have an hour with her and we could do something then. I asked her what else she did but she just said handjob and she would take her dress off. I think she wanted £50 for that. I put my clothes on and as I was walking out she was lying on the sofa with her mobile. She said she would see me again. I said I would see her again without her dress on and caught a glimpse of her white knickers.

got my first hate mail today

I have not had hate mail before, or if I have had it was so long ago I have forgotten it. Today I got one entitled 'Nasty pig' from Victoria Jane victoriajane6@googlemail.com. The message is "Woman hate men like u. All the women you pay think ur a pervy pig. Fuckin scum". I like pigs, so I don't take it as an insult to be compared to one. I'm sure there are women who hate me, but one thing I've learned is that people are all different.


Radical Feminists, Christians of Pentecostal or Catholic persuasions, and Moslems might hate me. I try not to hate anyone.

my review of the year 2015

I made several trips to Manchester where there seems to be more choice than anywhere else and it's cheaper. There are so many brothels and the going rate seems to be £40 per half hour, whereas in London and Liverpool it's £60 and in Glasgow (another place I punted in for the first time) it's £80.

I liked Cosmopolitan in Portland Street where I met the extremely attractive Dana and Piccadilly Club in Great Ancoats Street where I met a number of lovely women such as Katie, Sonya, Priscilla and Camille. It's even cheaper at Piccadilly, it's only £35 per half hour. The other place I liked was Salon 24 especially Cat.

I also made several trips to Soho. I mostly visited the walk ups but also a few Chinese massage places. My best day in Soho was in April when I saw pretty Thai girl Poppy, Scandinavian blonde nympho Eva and voluptuous Romanian Amy. I had seen all of them before and they are some of the best.

When I go to Chinese massage places it's not usually as sordid as the walk ups. Usually it is a nice massage and then the girl uses her hands to bring me to orgasm. That was how it was in May when I went to see a girl in London Chinatown that I had been told about. Two people emailed me to ask if I'd seen this girl who they both said was very pretty. I also saw a Thai woman in Manchester Chinatown who was very skilled at what she did.

However, it can be more sordid in Chinese massage places than the walk ups. I saw again a woman in Charing Cross Road who I had seen last year. She gave me oral sex without a condom and she lets men put their fingers in her pussy and bum hole. I found another one like her in Little Newport Street who was equally as wild.

I tried all of the brothels on the eastern side of the Wirral. I met Chrissie and Jordan at Jays Wallasey, Lauren at Overpool Angels, and Taylor at The Penthouse. All of these women are older local women who seem to be nymphomaniacs. Completely different from the younger ones in Soho who are mostly Eastern European. I went to the Thai brothel in Rock Ferry too where I met Jenny.

In Liverpool I met the independent black escort Maya and a Thai woman called Lily, both of them working from flats in the central Ropewalks area.

I have enjoyed my time with all of these women, but who was the best? That's difficult to say. Dana in Manchester was the most attractive. Katie in Manchester combined good looks and youth with sexiness and fun attitude. I liked Lauren because she's the one I would most like to have an affair with. The best one was the most recent: Cat in Manchester is young (24) and attractive (if you like her type) and seems a complete nymphomaniac. I used to think it was a myth that you can find local nymphomaniacs in brothels but since I moved to the North West I believe it. People will say that they are good at pretending but I think you can tell. When they wank themselves to orgasm, that's a good sign, especially if they screw their faces up as if they're in pain; they wouldn't do that if they were trying to look sexy.

I talked to three street girls this year. I found the Red Light Districts in Liverpool and Manchester. I only saw one street girl in Liverpool and I talked to her. I saw several in Manchester but I only spoke to one of them, a glamorous Asian looking woman sitting at the northern corner of St Andrew's Square. I also talked to Shanie in Croydon. I keep away from street girls now.

The number of 'Pageviews all time history' for this blog is very nearly one million. It's always amazed me that I can type in something and thousands of people will read it.