The British novelist Martin Amis once wrote a book called Time's Arrow, whose chief claim to fame was that it was written backwards.
The novel, the first-person account of a Nazi war criminal, is told entirely in reverse, opening with the protagonist's death and retracing his steps.
Time's Arrow is a little bit like riding a bicycle by pedalling with your hands and steering with your feet: an impressive act of technical virtuosity but, ultimately, pointless.
Acclaimed and utterly unreadable, the book's principal achievement is to confirm what we all assumed in the first place: that the traditional narrative structure works best, with a beginning, a middle and an end - in that order.
There is a purpose in this literary diversion.
It occurred to me the other day that Amis had missed his true vocation, which was to draft regulatory disclosures for Hong Kong's listed companies.
The thought struck me while I was trying to decipher last week's connected transaction announcement by Asia Logistics Technologies (ALT), an activity that was about as straightforward and rewarding as reading Time's Arrow.