ABOUT BLAGGARD AVENUE

The following is the author's note which prefaces David Morisset's new novel.

When I was an economist I was always making forecasts. I was seldom sure about them. One prediction I can make with reasonable certainty is that there will be some people who will conclude that this novel is an account of the plight of Trio Capital Limited. That conclusion might be regarded as understandable; but it will still be wrong.

The first draft of this work was completed in the early months of 2010. It was inspired by a comment made by a financial journalist about the shady origins of some of the people associated with the Trio case. Taking the reporter’s lead, my story was based on a simple premise of explaining the murder of an unscrupulous fund manager. My first draft was finished well before any of the criminal realities underlying the Trio affair became known to me or to any other member of the general public.

In turning my first draft into a more coherent story over the past year or so, I tried at all times to ignore the facts that emerged as the extent of the Trio fraud was gradually exposed in the courts. My aim was to run with the story I had invented in my own mind. In my view, I succeeded.

For the sake of the investors and others who suffered because of that fraud, I hope that the whole truth about Trio will one day emerge. At this time much of it still remains a mystery to all of its victims, including me.

So this novel is fiction – nothing more but, of course, nothing less. Likewise the characters are my own creations and they live only in the pages of ‘Blaggard Avenue’.

BLAGGARD AVENUE

David Morisset's new novel, "Blaggard Avenue", can now be obtained via CreateSpace at https://www.createspace.com/3671233 and is also available through Amazon.

"Blaggard Avenue" is a simple yarn set against the complex backdrop of Australia's huge funds management industry and the country's ambitions to become Asia's premier financial hub. The plot pits the naive, the gullible and the opportunistic against the ruthless, the efficient and the powerful. Fund managers, commercial lawyers, financial regulators and criminal gangs match wits in a contest that will produce more losers than winners. The author draws on his first-hand knowledge of the financial services sector to create a fictional world where risk and return take on extreme dimensions.

NAHAL*

"Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love."
(Song of Solomon 5:1b ESV)

When all the poets are dead
And none can write of love,
Then the crows in black robes
Will have their victory.

But no man can stop
The sun from shining
Nor can they stop its children,
The flowers, from blooming.

More poets will spring up
From the dust of the earth
To sing and dance and laugh.
Couples will always fall in love
And know that it is good -
As God intended it to be.

* Payvand News of Iran reported in September 2011 that Nahal Sahabi had died at her own hands not long after her lover, Behnam Ganji, had also committed suicide. Both had been arrested in July 2011 and treated harshly in Tehran's Evin prison. Nahal was a kindergarten teacher and an accomplished poet. Her only crime - apart from touching upon political themes in some of her poetry - was that she was a friend of Kouyahr Goudarzi, a political activist accused falsely of being a member of the Iranian Mojahedin (MEK). Mr Goudarzi later fled Iran to continue his human rights advocacy in exile. Just before her death, Nahal wrote on her blog: ‘So it’s Thursday again ... come, Behnam ... let’s dance together on Thursday once more.’ Iran's regime frowns on dancing. Nahal's name means 'a young plant'.