There was so much communicating going on behind me between two young women at Mercy, Mercy, Mercy that I eventually lost patience and suggested that they delay their conversation till the music was over.  Nobody expects to listen to jazz in a sepulchral silence but continuous chatter seems to me to defeat the object of going to a concert in the first place.  And as far as I could judge they were the only people in the Jazz Bar behaving in that way.

That was the only blemish on an hour and a half of music associated with Cannonball Adderley and his band.  Most of it from the 50s and 60s, much of it composed by his brother Nat and other members of the band.  In this line-up Nat's place was taken by Colin Steele and Cannonball's by Martin Kershaw.  It was excellent.

The Middle East could do with a little bit of mercy, mercy, mercy at the moment but none of the speakers at the Book Festival event on the middle east that I went to offered much prospect of that.  It was an interesting but sobering hour.

Mercifully there has been more music on hand to keep festival goers cheerful and I much enjoyed a late night show by the colourful Caribbean tenor saxophonist Arturo Tappin whose uninhibited and vigorous set was something of a contrast to the more restrained afternoon presentation by a sax quartet from Glasgow.  Who ever thought Weegies could be restrained?

My own show finished yesterday.  We got quite reasonable houses, quite a reasonable review and the show got better as the week went on.  It seems possible also that our efforts may be the talk of the cabinet table when they reassemble and swop holiday experiences if the Foreign Secretary enjoyed himself on Friday.  Of course if he didn't (the play has a few unkind words to say about politicians after all) he might point to it as the sort of crap you encounter on the Fringe.

Rumours by Neil Simon was our stablemate in the Royal Scots Club and I saw their last show last night.  It's a cracking comedy of a farcical nature and the cast made a great job of it.  A nice note to leave the venue on.