<i> Once Were Warriors </i> author Alan Duff owes more than $3 million in a botched and short career as a property developer. Photo / Doug Sherring
Best-selling author Alan Duff is asking creditors for an 18-month moratorium on more than $3 million of debt run-up in a botched and short career as a property developer.
In the High Court in Napier today, lawyer Gerald McKay said all but one of about 20 creditors were
believed to agree with the proposal put in the author's absence in France, writing the two books intended to both rescue his literary career and make sure creditors get all of their money back.
The proposal, opposed only by Auckland company Mutual Finance Group, was put before Associate Judge David Gendall, who adjourned the company's application for Duff's bankruptcy until November 13.
Mr McKay said it was "a bit of a damp squib" in terms of getting the matter resolved.
"But what the judge wanted to do was read the material, and consider the proposal," Mr McKay said. "There's no harm to anybody waiting."
The proposal, based on Duff's hopes that proceeds from the books will pay the bills, came from a creditors' meeting last month.
Mr McKay said he understood Duff had finished one of the two books and was "working very hard" on the second in the Loire Valley writing haven made available by a British merchant banker.
Details of the books are closely guarded secrets, but they are not expected to be an extension of the trilogy sparked by the writer's first novel, Once Were Warriors, published in 1990 and later made into a hit movie.
The first sequel What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? was published in 1997 and was followed by Jake's Long Shadow in 2002.
- NZPA
