Category Archives: Prose

Fine dining in Leysdown on the eve of the Queen’s funeral

Posted on September 30, 2022 by Matei

ISLE OF SHEPPEY–Leysdown is about three and a half miles down the road from the Sheppey Prisons Cluster. It’s also one of the locations where Channel 4 comedy “The End of the Fucking World” was filmed. It’s home to several … Continue reading →

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My new (and first) novel

Posted on April 23, 2018 by Matei

If you would like to know more about my new novel, Country Gumption, which is also unpublished and my first, please click here.

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Moldova’s other choice

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Matei

Maia Sandu could be living proof that Moldovans don’t necessarily have to choose between handing their lives over to either oligarchs or communists. Much has changed for the better in Moldova in recent months — there is a new governor … Continue reading →

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Another Brick Lane Tale

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Matei

Much ink has been used on the topic of how the East End is now compared to the good ol’ days. Of all the well-documented waves of immigrants that came here, Eastern Europeans like me are the newest. I was … Continue reading →

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The ‘silent secret’ app

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Matei

Before spending eight months as a night-shift delivery driver for a posh deli called Benugo, I distributed flyers advertising the Silent Secret app to children in Barking, East London, for a few hours in December 2014 as a means to … Continue reading →

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Clarkson bubbles

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Matei

The dullard, out-of-touch communists from the BBC have saved my boss and most of my colleagues from an ass-whooping to end all whoopings today. But not for long, I suspect. There is something boiling in us all, just under the … Continue reading →

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Profiling Guccifer

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Matei

Some more material and a few shreds of thought on the story and the hacker himself… The other day Pando.com of San Francisco published my big feature on the Romanian hacker Guccifer, real name Marcel Lazar-Lehel. He is a fascinating … Continue reading →

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No Land’s Man or How Not to Do an Election

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Matei

The 2014 presidential elections were a pyrrhic victory for Western values in post-Communist Romania. Note: a Romanian language version of this article was published by Gazeta de Romania, a London-based newspaper for Romanian expats. Read it here. Thousands of Romanians … Continue reading →

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The Medianett saga: adventures in mercenary churnalism

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Matei

“Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme…” – John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1667 Cub reporters: beware of marketing agencies employing investigative journalists. These wrongens* will likely try to corrupt you. Initially I wanted to be the source instead of the … Continue reading →

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Nursing a crisis

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Matei

In light of news earlier this month that the NHS is seriously overspending on agency staff, Rotherham Hospital provides a glimpse into how the dogma of outsourcing often achieves the exact opposite of its intended purpose which is to save … Continue reading →

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