"You've never seen anything like this before!" it proudly declared.

Errr, unless you've read one of the greatest works of English literature or seen one of the myriad of stage and screen versions which have been churned out at regular intervals over the years.

Everyone from Alastair Sim to Patrick Stewart, via The Muppets, have offered their take on this Christmas tale of love and redemption.

The British Film Institute even got in on the act yesterday.

But in fairness to this version, it has achieved something new, not least introducing a new generation to the genuinely scary ghostly goings on.

In that sense, it's probably closer to the original Dickens' tale than other adaptations.

Capture animation - where the actors perform their scenes wearing special bodysuits and then the action is animated - is a technique used by director Robert Zemeckis before in The Polar Express.

But here, in a story which has the central character flying over London, crawling beneath the sewers and tumbling into graves, it really comes into its own.

Jim Carrey, who can create cartoonish expressions any way, is particularly impressive and it's very clear it IS him, not just in Scrooge but in the Three Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, which he also plays.

The great advantage to the technique is that it means actors can play several different roles and the whole film - crowd scenes and all - is pretty much staffed by just 15 actors.

The doubling up makes sense, particularly with Scrooge, since aren't those ghosts just figments of his own imagination?

Last night's London premiere - attended by the film's stars Jim Carrey, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins and Robin Wright Penn - coincided not just with the switch on of the Christmas Lights (this early? bah humbug!) but with simultaneous screenings of the film in 28 cinemas across the country, including Glasgow's Braehead Odeon.

Over a hundred representatives from the key heritage bodies were gathered for a brainstorming session, attended, and at one stage, chaired by culture minister Mike Russell.

With just a few hours to fit it all in, delegates had to keep it brief but several points were made loud and clear:

Heritage is not just buildings. It's archaeology, landscape and collections.

It doesn't matter if it's listed, if it's important to your community, it's important.

Too many people chasing too little money so communities have to start taking ownership of their heritage or accept it may be lost.

History needs to be taken to street level. Not just about cathedrals and castles, it's about people's homes and streets and the spaces between them.

Community involvement got a thumbs-up from the culture minister Mike Russell, not least because of the squeeze on government funding at local and national levels.

His question - to the assembled movers and shakers was how to persuade communities to take responsibility.

All well and good if it's an A-listed cathedral but what if it's a less likeable modern ruin.

Does the community in Cardross feel as strongly about St Peter's seminary as the people of St Andrews feel about their crumbling cathedral? I suspect not.

There's no way of controlling what old - and new buildings end up on your doorstep and, as several delegates pointed out, it's not just about buildings.

Can you rouse the same level of community support for an archaelogical find or a sprawling museum collection?

One issue raised by several delegates - including architect Malcolm Fraser - is the issue of VAT which, according to many people, is hampering attempts to restore and repair old buildings.

It's an issue that the newly arrived chief executive of Historic Scotland, Ruth Parsons is well qualified to discuss at length. Among her previous roles before taking up the post, she was a VAT inspector for the Inland Revenue.

No surprises there.

Since August when the Trust announced the company had gone into administration, following a string of funding problems, it's been only a matter of time.

This week, with the withdrawal of Glasgow City Council's funding, it was clear the trust's role in the building was over.

What now? Glasgow City Council is keen to keep the concept alive, perhaps as a business centre for the creative industries.

And unless it wants to go down the route of unravelling its funding - and returning some of the millions the Lottery gave the project when it first opened in 1999 - the council has to think beyond the realms of a business centre to something which appeals to as wide a range of people as possible.

Not an easy task as those who've run the centre for the past 10 years will admit.

It's position down a dark lane, and its esoteric subject matter don't help.

And with so many other cultural centres vying for public attention and money - not least the newly opened Trongate 103 and the newly refurbished Tramway - it's going to be a tough one for the council to justify.

Despite a high profile petition, it's likely they'll all be issued with redundancy notices, with the Chambers side of the business transferring to London and the Harrap operation, which publishes foreign language reference books, transferring to Paris.

There are a lot of reasons to rue the closure - not least the fact that it brings to an abrupt end 200 years of publishing history.

Since William and Robert Chambers first established their dictionary in the capital in 1867, it's been a pillar of publishing, first for Victorians in search of a little self improvement, latterly as the best reference point for ambitious crossword and Scrabble enthusiasts.

Part of its appeal is the fact it's a no nonsense, Scottish institution which published everything you required in one volume.

Of course, reference publishing has been in trouble for decades, and not just because of the decline in sales or the increasing appeal of online editions.

But many campaigners believe that's a simplistic argument - and if it's the case, how can they justify moving the work elsewhere? Where's the longer term outlook?

It's ironic given Edinburgh's status as UNESCO's first city of literature, that one of its most historic publishing connections is being broken - although not without a fight as politicians and writers alike have taken up the cause. An online petition has attracted hundreds of signatures.

Ironic too that it's only a matter of months since MEP David Martin called on the dictionary to be given the same EC protection as Arbroath Smokies, champagne and Black Forest Ham.

We can all laugh, but in the faceless world of global publishing, that little bit of old fashioned Scottish reference is unique and important.
It's not just about words - or online versus hard copies. It's not about luddites versus a more high-tech form of reference.

It's about a historic reference point - dating back to the Scottish Enlightenment - which once lost - won't be easily restored.

Originally adapted for the stage by Adrian Noble almost a decade ago, it consistently tops friends and colleagues' lists of must see stage shows.

Noble has done a fine job of honing down both the Ian Fleming story and the Roald Dahl script into a much less flabby affair than the film - although at two hours and 20 minutes, it's still a bit of a marathon.

It seems as if everyone who's anyone has had a part to play in the production since it was first staged in 2002. From Michael Ball and Jason Donovan as Caractacus Potts to Wayne Sleep, Alvin Stardust and Richard O'Brien - who was surely made for the role of the Childcatcher (although no-one has quite topped the sinister movements of ballet dancer Robert Helpmann in the original film).

Our show is an unstarry event - and no bad thing for it. Just Barbara Rafferty hamming it for the home crowd and everyone else slick and polished after weeks on tour together. And the star, after all, is the car, and it doesn't disappoint.

There's a collective gasp when it first appears amid a burst of stage fireworks, and again when it takes to the skies.

Soap stars

One night later, and the other end of the theatrical spectrum for a piece of theatre so small, so intimate and so up to the minute, you can perform it standing up in a pub. Westenders, the new live theatre soap is, like most soaps, set in a pub but the difference is that this show is also performed IN the pub.

Creator Ann Marie Di Mambro was inspired by the venue's lunchtime theatre programme - A Play And A Pie And A Pint - to which she contributed. She decided if audiences could turn out every week for a play, they could do the same for a soap.

She's persuaded several of her fellow writers from River City to help, and pulled together a cast of actors - including Andy Gray, Jonathan Watson, Juliet Cadzow, Greg Hemphill and Julie Wilson Nimmo - who've all agreed to take part for next to nothing.

Set in the fictional pub The Pig and the Poke, it follows bar-owner Ruby, aspiring writer husband Rabbie, Ruby's sister Pearl, mum Beryl and others. The pub - like Oran Mor - has a kindly approach to writers and there's even a cameo for writer Alasdair Gray in episode one when he orders a whisky before launching his own book upstairs.

It was standing room only for last night's opener - and despite problems with the sound which meant many people at the back of the pub couldn't hear the show - it looks like it's hooked people in for a few more episodes.

And while there was no obvious cliffhanger at the end of last night's episode, Ms Di Mambro promises a mighty cliffhanger for episode eight (on 10 December). Enough she hopes to persuade someone somewhere to commission a second series.

There are only 86 days till the start of the 2010 Celtic Connections festival, and a fair amount of excitement at the launch this morning in Glasgow of the new programme.

Since his appointment three years ago, the artistic director Donald Shaw has pushed the world music element of the festival and he admits himself it is an important strand of this year's programme.

One of his biggest coups is reuniting Ry Cooder with The Chieftains - who'll perform a concert exploring Celtic and Mexican musical connections.

"I didn't know there was a connection between Celtic music and Mexican music," he admits, "but if The Chieftains say there's a connection, there's a connection."

Negotiations to confirm the gig were only finalised in the wee small hours of this morning, with Ry Cooder, who toured Europe in his own right earlier this year, not keen to travel to Glasgow in the middle of January.

And although Donald Shaw admits the concert - which will also feature Cara Butler from the original Riverdance show and Mexican band Los Cenzontles - is something of a coup for the festival, he hands most of the credit to Chieftains founder and leader Paddy Moloney.

"Paddy has a real affection for the Scottish audience and he was keen to see this city host the concert. He thought if any city, if any festival, should stage a concert like this, it was this one," says Donald Shaw.

Celtic Connections has grown dramatically since it was first dreamed up 17 years ago as an answer to the black hole in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall's winter programme.

But the festival now has the clout that allows up to 1,500 performers to consider travelling to Glasgow in the middle of a winter for a festival appearance.

And despite his own experiences as a jobbing musician with Capercaillie, Donald Shaw admits he's still surprised by how long it can take to persuade a musician to appear and fix a date in the diary.

Two of his latest conquests - Bobby McFerrin and Natalie Merchant - took months of persuading.

Merchant, the former front-woman of American indie band 10,000 Maniacs, was a particular achievement.

"I'm a big fan and she hasn't performed for so long," he says.

"I knew she was working with Lunasa, the Irish band, so I knew she was interested in traditional music. So I started talking to her management about persuading her to come.

"And then a few months ago, she decided she couldn't do it, the album wouldn't be ready. I said come anyway, and just appear at the festival.

"So I was delighted to be the one to drag her out of hibernation."

And indie/americana/traditional isn't the only mix you'll hear.

For real crossover, check out Dick Gaughan who's gone all out reggae with a special dub show featuring Jason Wilson, Brinsley Forde, The Fab Five and Dave Swarbrick.

There are two tribute concerts too for songwriters Nick Drake and John Martyn.

Drake's record producer Joe Boyd will lead the Drake concert with contriubutions from Vashti Bunyan, Green Gartside and Danny Thompson.

And it's Thompson, who'll also lead the tribute to John Martyn, who died during last year's festival and was the subject of many informal tributes at the time.

As a close friend for two decades, he's been asked on several occasions since then to stage a tribute concert but believes this event - with contributions from Martin Simpson, Luka Bloom and Eddie Reader is the one.

And of course, there are connections too - celtic or otherwise - between John Martyn and Nick Drake, with Martyn writing the title song of his 1973 album Solid Air for Drake.

And for those who're after sociable connections rather than musical ones, there's good news about the festival club, which will be held nightly at Glasgow School of Art.

Will it ever return to its spiritual home in the Central Hotel? Only time and a multi-million pound hotel makeover stand in the way.

But a few hours ago, I spent my final evening on Botswana in the truly spectacular setting of the game reserve at Mokoldi.

And as the sun set and the moon rose, I joined the author Alexander McCall Smith and his friends and family in the little rest camp he himself established here a year ago.

It's a simple affair, just six thatched huts with oil lamps and basic shower and toilet facilities - but it gives a real sense of being part of the natural landscape, which offers the perfect ending to an extraordinary trip.

The reserve is only a few kilometres from the country's capital Gaborone. But its spectacular scale - 10,000 acres in all - means it feels remote.

Our guide Tshepo takes us into the park, which safeguards many animals, not least the white rhino, which is being hunted into extinction.

Head Ranger, Neil Wilson later tells us he fears for the safety of the nine rhino they now have, so great is the value of their horns.

Attempts to divert the hunters by dehorning the beasts elsewhere, haven't brought good results so Neil's hope is to be able to buy a microlite to be able to survey the reserve and keep an eye out for potential hunters.

The big draw of the reserve - at least for locals - is the cheetah enclosure. Duma and Lletoso were rescued as cubs when their mother was shot by a farmer.

They've been in captivity so long, they'll happily allow humans to stroke them, as if they're giant purring domestic toms.

It's useful to be wary though. They have been known to take an irritated swipe - they're 14 years old now so the cheetah equivalent of grumpy old men - and one of Bill Clinton's bodyguards came a cropper a few years back.

Sandy McCall Smith admits he too sustained a cheetah injury himself. "t was just a scratch but I was able to send my agent a telegram saying 'ustained cheetah injury, but still in one piece'," he said.

Not that anyone can afford to be complacent. Last year, two Sri Lankan keepers were killed when a bull elephant turned against them.

The park has since struggled with bad publicity although the male elephant was destroyed and Sri Lankan guides continue to apply for work there.

McCall Smith set up the rest camp a year ago but this is the first time he's stayed here himself, along with his wife Elizabeth and the close friends who've helped him establish the opera house.

It's a philanthropic project, with all profits ploughed back into the conservation work of the park. Almost an hour's drive from the park gates, it's as close as you'll get to communing with nature, in the kind of atmosphere Sandy's character Mma Ramotswe might have experienced growing up in rural Botswana.

Working with park authorities, he's also keen to establish a star gazing facility, since the roof of the little restaurant offers unparalleled views of that section of the African skies.

After an evening braai - the southern African equivalent of a barbecue - it's the most obvious thing to do. And that's followed by a spell of storytelling around the campfire.

A suitably African end to the whole adventure.

For those who are interested, you can hear the whole documentary - The Number One Ladies Opera House - on Radio Four next Tuesday at 1330 BST.

And in the case of the Big Man, it happens literally minutes after I arrive at a huge warehouse on an industrial estate in Leith.

The team behind the 25ft puppet - local companies Puppet Animation and the Puppet Lab - are testing its abilities in the strong wind and the sight of the blue giant striding across the forecourt is too much for one van driver, who promptly drives into a ditch.

"It happens all the time," says artistic director Simon McIntyre.

"If they're not driving off the road, they're driving past for another look, hooting their horns and hanging out the windows to take photographs."

A photocall on nearby Portobello Beach is just as much of a draw, the 12 puppeteers and handful of photographers soon overwhelmed by more than 100 children.

At least it's proof the team have managed to create a friendly giant - and that, says designer Kim Bersagal, is why he's blue.

"He's clearly not a human," she says,"so flesh tones were out and so many other colours came with associations.

"Red would have been too angry, green and orange too many other associations, blue just seemed right and appropriate too since he looks like he's just fallen out of the sky."

The one and a half tonne creation is the centrepiece of a £600,000 Arts Council funded project which will see the Big Man Walking into communities around the country, from the Isle of Bute this weekend, to Kirkcaldy, Invergordon, Buckie and Inverclyde.

"The idea is that the giant has been asleep for thousands of years," says Simon, "and now that he's awoken he's being invited into these communities where they will welcome him and show him the best things about their town.

"That's quite important in many towns, where they're not often asked about the good things and we've had some great responses.

"The thing about the Big Man is that he simply walks and looks and watches and then leaves again. He doesn't make any comment on what he sees."

If you look closely at the Big Man's eyes, you'll also see he is taking in more than your average puppet, with a remote-controlled camera recording what happens in each community.

The results will be streamed on the web.

But the question remains, what will happen to the Big Man after his latest expedition is over?

"Who knows," says Simon, "we're just a small puppet company who've got to make this amazing project.

"Maybe we'll be back to what we did. Or maybe he'll find more places to travel - with friends.

"I've always wanted to create a giant baby, that wandered around the country.

"Maybe that's what we'll do next."

Artists on the Tall Ship (otherwise known as the Glenlee on the Clydeside) features singers and musicians from Scottish Opera, dancers from Scottish Ballet and several local artists and photographers.

All were inspired by the story of Colonel Mark Wright, an Edinburgh-born soldier who was killed in Afghanistan three years ago this month.

His parents, Bob and Jem Wright want to honour his memory by establishing a drop-in centre for other bereaved families and also for the soldiers who do return home, but are traumatised by their experiences.

It's thought the centre, which is due to open in Edinburgh in November, would be the first of its kind in Scotland.

As well as the £4 million they need to establish the centre, they estimate they need £60,000 a year for running costs.

So far, they've managed to raise half of that figure.

The evening will be hosted by Colonel Stuart Tootal, author of the book Danger Close, which deals with his own experiences with the first unit into Helmand back in 2006.

Marion Hebblethwaite, whose book One Step Further highlights those who've won the George Cross over the years, will also speak.

One of the most recent recipients was Mark Wright.

Details of the event can be found at www.operafor.com

The new building, seamlessly latched onto Tramway - at least inside the building, it's virtually impossible to tell where one starts and the other ends - is astonishingly, the first purpose-built headquarters in the company's 40 year history.

And a far cry from their old premises at 261 West Princes Street in Glasgow's west end.

There the dancing was restricted not just by the size of some of the studios but by the buckets and mats that had to be scattered around the catch the drips from the leaking roofs.

The wardrobe department fought a constant battle to protect the costumes from damp - famously losing all of their Conran designed "swans" from Swan Lake when the basement flooded.

The van drivers meanwhile had to master the tightest three point turns in history in order to back into a scenedock, never intended to be part of a Victorian tenement block.

And while some aspects were quaint and quirky - not least the mail bag on a rope which stopped admin staff on the top floor having to come up and down the stairs 40 times a day - the overall message seemed to be that this was a national company not worthy of proper investment.

It's only a decade since dancers had to take a campaign to Downing Street to try to persuade the government to prevent the company from closing altogether and while artistically, Scottish Ballet is back on its feet again - largely thanks to the arrival of Ashley Page - as the smallest and leanest of the national companies, it had some political ground to gain.

This should do it. A state of the art facility in an existing arts centre in a thriving community which has already taken the company to its heart.

The final million of the £11m bill for the building was raised through public appeal and they'll get the chance to see what their money paid for when the company throws its doors open on Saturday and Sunday as part of the Doors Open campaign.

First, snake-hipped dance god Patrick Swayze, then the man who invented the whole TV chef trend, Keith Floyd, and now the screen writer Troy Kennedy Martin.

The Glasgow-born writer created some of the most classic work on British television over the last few decades - everything from Z Cars to Edge of Darkness.

He was also known for his writing in cinema - in particular, his screenplay for the Italian Job.

And more recently Red Heat, which he co-wrote for Arnold Schwarzengger.

Z-Cars, which he wrote before he was even 30, revolutionised television in the 1960s with a gritty realism which hadn't been attempted before.

He claimed to have the idea of a police series set in patrol cars in the north of England while ill with mumps and listening to real police patrols on VHF radio.

Although he was one of a team of writers on the show, it was he who was credited with its creation, he held the copyright and he got paid a fee for every episode.

He also brought the series to an end in 1978, writing the final episode in which some of the best known characters returned.

In 1985, he wrote Edge of Darkness, a chilling thriller about a nuclear conspiracy in which Bob Peck played a policeman investigating his daughter's murder.

Again, he broke new ground by demanding to be able to write up to the wire, allowing him to include contemporary references and avoid any interference from his paymasters.

It's a way of writing current screenwriters can only dream of and for Kennedy Martin, it was also a short-lived period of freedom.

I spoke to him a few times on the phone, usually about an obituary for one of his many screenwriting friends and colleagues.

Among them John McGrath, who worked with him in the BBC script editors department in the 1960s.

He was always charming and helpful, with an encylopaedic knowledge of British television.

And a writer of his calibre - and a Scot to boot - would have been equally dismayed at the demise of another great Scottish literary institution.

Chambers, who've been publishing their dictionaries in Edinburgh since 1819, will now close their offices in the capital with the loss of 27 jobs.

The dictionary - famous among Scrabble players for including a wider spread of eclectic words than some other dictionaries, will still be published but only in London.

The use of online spell checks has been blamed for the downturn in business.

While the telephone directories and piles of back issues of newspapers may no longer clutter your average newsroom, I'm one of a handful of Luddites who still likes to keep a dictionary, a thesaurus and a few good grammar books to hand.

Too bad there are fewer and fewer of us around.

Like a big, noisy howling teenager rushing up to the demure old lady that Edinburgh normally is, whirling her around so her skirts fly in the air and her underwear is exposed to the world. (although if you're going to be pedantic, the Fringe at 62, should really know better).

Every available space is taken over for performance - from pubs and shops to church halls and public toilets.

What's left is plastered in posters, advertising shows from first thing in the morning, to the wee small hours of the next.

And they're so keen - they even started a full three days earlier than usual - to maximise the box office and because thousands of performers were already in town.

Among them Denise Van Outen, Lionel Blair, Alastair McGowan, and Paul Merton.

The celebrity revolving door was demonstrated beautifully on the Pleasance one afternoon as Hardeep Singh Kholi stepped out of one side of a taxi and Nicholas Parsons stepped in through the other.

And amidst the established names, the thousands of unknowns hoping to become known.

Among them two "Russian" performers so desperate for publicity they delivered themselves in a box to the BBC reception, and promptly perform there and then for the startled reporter.

Do we remember the name of their show - one of 2,098 at this year's Fringe?

Perhaps not, but it did up the ante for those who think a flyer is enough to justify a review.

From performances in a box to one so big, it had to be staged miles out of the city centre at Ingliston.

This Romanian version of Faust - part of the International festival - definitely upped the ante with a cast of 120 and a stage set which split down the middle, allowing the audience to descend into hell.

A spectacular performance - although perhaps lost a little of its edge by herding the audience out of hell and back into their seats - where the only hellish experience was having to queue while people in very British fashion insisted on returning to the exact same seats they'd left in the first place.

Not that there was much sitting around this festival.

Thanks to the ubiquitous city tramworks, we were all walking more.

Maps were issued to help festival goers negotiate the old town/new town divide; extra crossings were introduced in Princes Street. and more pedestrians meant more business, particularly for those with venues scattered across the city.

They were making do down at the Book festival too where a dodgy generator plunged several events into darkness.

Ian Rankin - no stranger to the darker side of Edinburgh in his crime novels - cheerily grabbed a torch and carried on with the business of handing out the UK's oldest literary prize to Irish author Sebastian Barry.

The Usher Hall suffered a similar power cut on its opening weekend of the International festival - leading to many jokes about the aptness of this year's theme of Enlightenment.

Australian director Jonathan Mills in provocative mood opened this year's programme with Judas Maccabeus, Handel's thinly disguised tribute to the Duke of Cumberland's quelling of the Jacobite rebellion.

If there was any bad feeling, it didn't show on opening night, when a capacity audience took their seats for the performance - including a rousing rendition of See the Conquering Hero Comes.

It wasn't just the adults who got their fill of culture.

For children, there was a stronger programme than ever.

There were celebrities here too - like Andy from CBeebies who as every child under five will tell you, doesn't require a second name because he's so famous.

And for the mums and dads, there was a children's presenter of an earlier era - Peter Duncan - who in classic children's TV style, set about turning a corner of the Pleasance into a Blue Peter garden using just stones, water and vast amounts of sticky backed plastic.

There was conventional puppetry - like the wonderful staging of Rapunzel at the Scottish Storytelling Centre - but surreal performances too - like a Korean show entirely about dog poo.

The moral of the Dandelion Story seems to be that every substance has a purpose.

My son, who's sitting in the front row eating his ham sandwiches between guffaws seems to get the message - although it's clear that dancing dog poo is still an acquired taste for anyone over the age of five.

There are plenty of ups and downs in the world of comedy.

For Eddie Izzard, quite literally as he continues his series of marathons around the UK with a sprint up Arthur's Seat.

A veteran of more than 12 festivals, he admits he'd rather endure the physical toil of a thousand miles of running, than the mental anguish of a bad review at the festival.

No bad reviews for up and coming comic Tom Wrigglesworth, who not only got a show from a bad experience but by touring it, has managed to change the law.

The comedian was arrested on a Virgin train last year after having a whip-round for an old lady who'd been charged £115 for having the wrong ticket.

His tale of an entire train full of passengers standing up Spartacus-style to stop him being arrested was both comic and heart-warming and has genuinely brought about a change in ticket policy.

Something few comedy shows must be able to claim.

Equally uplifting is the Soweto Gospel choir - who admitted that this is likely to be their last Fringe run due to international touring commitments.

Not bad for a group who got their first big break in Edinburgh in 2003 playing the classic venue of a church hall - and are now barely able to contain an audience in one of the festival's biggest venues.

Truly the dream of most performers at the fringe.

And after three and a half weeks, that dream is over.

The temporary venues are dismantled, returning to more mundane business.

The posters are peeled off, the streets cleared of performers.

And the good news is that neither the recession nor problems with last year's box office have knocked the Fringe off its stride.

Sales are up by 21% - back to the steady climb of the last decade.

Just the International festival remains - and that draws to a close on Sunday night with the customary oohs and ahhs of the fireworks concert.

After that there'll be no symphonies performed on workmen's tools, or bar-room brawls staged in real bar-rooms.

Or full scale giraffes striding down the Royal Mile.

Or crockery rattling nightly as tornados swoop over the Royal Mile to the tattoo.

After that, it's all over. At least until next year.

With most of the larger venues reporting anything up to 50% increases in numbers over the opening weeks, it was always going to be a good year.

But even the most optimistic promoters must be surprised by the fact that the overall sales are up across the board by 21%.

And taking into account last year's problems, that means the Fringe is 9% up on their best every year - 2007.

The main reason, seems to be the high percentage of UK visitors - staycationers spending their holidays not abroad but at the festival.

But a strong programme of shows and competitive ticketing deals seems to have paid off.

Karen Koren of the Gilded Balloon is particularly delighted to win back a local audience.

Her plans to stage the Chippendales at one of her biggest venues was met by tut tuts at the start of the festival, from people who felt that staging an already successful commercial show was not only a cop out but also out of keeping with the spirit of the Fringe.

Her argument was always that she wanted to win back a local audience who decided the fringe wasn't for them - and it seems to have paid off.

Not that the Fringe can afford to be complacent.

There are still plenty of issues to resolve, not least the role of the slightly antiquated Fringe Society in the promotion of the world's largest arts festival.

Food for thought as the venues are dismantled and the thousands of flyposters are washed off today.

Stay at home audiences seem to be the main factor in the upturn - which has seen some venues up by as much as 50% in the opening weeks - but having a working box office has also helped get back on track after last year's box office melt-down.

But for many shows, the Fringe is just the starting point. The creators of Crabbit - a children's musical - which has been at the Gilded Balloon for the past few weeks are hopeful it'll guarantee them a short run in a theatre in London's West End.

The show is based on a book by Edinburgh based author Julie Hegarty, who's been touring the show's anti-bullying message round Scottish schools for the past three years.

The recession was the unlikely catalyst for turning it into a musical. Husband Tim had been a songwriter with Irish band D:ream when they first met and returned to the trade with the demise of his property company.

Now they're in talks with an animation company as well as hoping to take the show on tour around the UK.

Others going on to London include David O'Doherty, Reginald D Hunter, Laura Solon the Pajama Men, Kim Noble, Mikelangelo and The Black Sea Gentlemen, Paul Foot, Allan Cochraine and Shappi Khorsandi.

Many comedians will be off to the other comedy festivals - including the well respected Australian events (Melbourne in particular sees a lot of trade between the two countries). Many of those who staff the festivals will also head down under.

Maria Teece who's performing in Viva has a worldwide tour ahead with dates in Dubrovnik, Dublin Fringe Festival and New York, followed by a tour of Ireland.

David Leddy's double bill is going in two directions - Sessurus is going to Oxford and Milan while his show White Tea - in which the audience wears kimonos and sips tea - is touring Scotland immediately after the festival.

Meanwhile, three shows will be back at next year's international festival as winners of the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Prize 2009. The prize encourages greater co-operation between fringe and international festival by selecting work from this year's fringe, to be staged again at next year's festival.

This year's selection - announced this morning - includes a Gothic puppet play - Lily Through the Dark by Hampshire-based theatre company The River People, the aforementioned White Tea by our very own David Leddy and Is That All There Is, a blistering comedy drama about a couple on the brink of marriage by Inspector Sands theatre company.

All three shows will feature in next year's Edinburgh International Festival programme.

Nice to see that environmental art company NVA have managed to find another way of keeping their work alive long after the show is over.

The Glasgow-based company created the ambitious work Half Life with the National Theatre of Scotland two years ago. As well as a performance in a forest in Argyll, it included walks and art interventions in historic sites around the area - regarded as one of the richest spots in the world as far as neolithic culture goes.

NVA now have a website which gives new interpretations of the works and the sites that can still be visited, along with downloadable maps and directions.

The four main routes include some of the most powerful existing Neolithic sites and forts in the area along with three NVA interventions, designed by Simon Costin and James Johnson in collaboration with Angus Farquhar. For more information see www.halflife.org.uk

Meanwhile better late than never for the Edinburgh International Festival. A performance of Don Quixote which had to be cancelled last year when the Staatskapelle Dresden made it to Edinburgh but their instruments didn't, is being restaged tonight.

Festival director Jonathan Mills promised the show would go on and true to his word, the Strauss piece will be played tonight by the BBC SSO under their new conductor Donald Runnicles, alongside works by Brahms and Webern.

Cellist, Jan Vogler, who was due to play in last year's concert, is the soloist.

The Milestone carve at Edinburgh College of Art - which involved 10 international artists carving 20 tonnes of different kinds of stone is drawing to a close.

Among the works, one by Japanese artist Atsuo Okamoto who unearthed his basalt glacial erratic boulder from excavations at the new tram terminus on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

For the past few weeks, he's been using a drill taller than himself to hollow out the boulder and in the process created a brand new musical instrument.

He demonstrates a trumpet sound using a long metal pole inserted into one of the gaps, but mostly he says, people have been using it as a drum.

"It's so busy here during the day, so noisy, but at night time, when it's a little quieter, people have been coming along, having a drink and then drumming. We have drumming workshops."

Gerard Mas from Spain set himself the challenge of transforming his Dorset limestone into a sheep, sculpting instead of shearing.

"It was not as easy as I thought," he admits," which is why I've decided to keep some woolly sheep and some sheared sheep."

For the record, even in stone rather than wool, the sheep's skin looks surprisingly lifelike.

The sculptures will remain outside the college building for just another day or two - except Hayashi Takeshi's work which is inside the main building.

There, visitors are encouraged to take off their shoes and walk barefoot across the stone carpet so they can feel the different textures.

The shape - he tells me - is the size of a traditional Japanese carpet, particularly those associated with tea ceremonies but the sandstone is as Scottish as it comes, from Corsehill in Dumfriesshire.

The works will now be transferred to Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a major exhibition which begins later this year.

After that, they'll transfer to the Pier Arts Centre in Orkney before ending up at Goodwood.