White Trash: a memoir

​Author: Terry Angelos
Publisher: Melinda Ferguson
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
‘Digging up my past has not been easy’. Bit of an understatement from Terry who notes that writing a book is often compared to birthing a child – and she would know. White Trash covers her descent into the ‘seedy underbelly’ of life as a 20 year old high-class call girl in London - no easy ride. Luckily, as she wrote, she had not only her husband to ‘hold her hand and wipe away her tears’ – but midwife-publisher Melinda who encouraged her to push hard – and harder, till, I would 

imagine, the last drops of blood, sweat and tears were spewed and spent.
‘It’s taken 32 years to feel ready to write down my story…this is my search to understand…the origins of my deviance.’ So steel yourself. But the scabs at which she picks are not just those of champagne-fuelled sleaze and sex in the London of ’89. She also beats back the path to a town called Sinoia, 100 or so kms north of Harare where her ‘White town’ of ‘bright swimming towels on washing lines and obedient hedges’ is in gut-wrenching contrast to the ‘Black location, place of ragged clothing whimpering in the wind.’ So there’s guilt. After moving to South Africa, the daughter of two teachers, there are also guys, pimply and otherwise, and the ghastliness of being the new girl, the outsider and the loud and promiscuous rebel. And as a rebel with no real cause, she opts to go to London, which is where, like a leaf on the water, she washes up on some pretty murky banks. And where, once again she is confronted with skin-colour conflict, though in a rather different way. But in a big city, when there’s no one to guide you and money is scarce, it doesn’t take long to get in with dodgy company – and succumb to the call-girl calling.
To cut to the chase, eventually the rebel finds safety and salvation in God – and in Steve. What happens in between, in that year in London, is eyebrow raising stuff that takes us back to ‘digging up the past’ not being easy. That Terry has finally got all this off her chest is laudable – and testimony to the maxim, that the truth will set you free to move on. So now that it’s out there, hopefully she is liberated – but her story will surely have a sobering and cautionary effect on anyone who reads it.