Clipped

In the mid-80s I embarked upon an adventure. At seventeen, I ran away from the sleepy market town of Uttoxeter to the bright lights of London. I ended up in Soho in the West End of London entering happily into the gloomy, sleazy, sordid and wonderful world of the Clip Joint and the cunning scams of the 'Clippers' who plied their trade of trickery on the streets of Soho.


I learned the art of deception and the absolute ruthlessness with which it was practiced. I was swiftly educated in the un-written laws of the streets, of which I was a more than enthusiastic pupil. You will read of the drugs, the sex and the enormous amounts of money made - money we worked hard to earn but played even harder to squander. I tell of the constant battle with the authorities who were trying to stamp out our chosen profession.


I try and explain the camaraderie of the area and the people who populated it, the characters, their many virtues and innumerable flaws and faults. In this book I describe the spontaneous violence which constantly bubbled just below the surface. I tell of the promises, confidence tricks and scams which lured the willing but unsuspecting victims into deception, and extortion and of the sadism and the cold, callous selfishness of the punters. Hopefully you will read and understand how the promise of my new life disintegrated into heroin addiction, and the dark and dangerous, hazardous world of smuggling, which my dependency on drugs meant I became embroiled in. This is my story a tale of extreme highs and lows. An account of tremendous camaraderie, of friendships made, broken or lost in the blinking of an eye. Tragedy, good fortune, calamity, providence. I saw it all.