Arts diary: Theatre ticket touts and a mystery global book launch in Scotland

Seats for the one-week-only production of Susie Miller's hit play Prima Facie with Jodie Comer at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre were snapped up within minutes of going on sale last year, leaving drama lovers tearing their hair out in anguish.

Many turned to the second hand market to acquire tickets, which were selling for as much as £429 per seat in the days before the run began. However, there were risks.

The theatre was forced to issue a warning to audience members that only tickets bought directly from the the box office could be honoured after one person was turned away with a fake screenshotted ticket bought on Facebook.

Who would have thought that theatre tickets could be as hard - and risky - to get as a spot at a Harry Styles concert?

The world has gone to hell in a handcart.

The saga of the CCA

The story of the collapse of the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow has continued over the past week. The Scotsman has broken several stories on its liquidation, including that Glasgow City Council issued an emergency loan to keep the organisation afloat 18 months before its demise.

Meanwhile, full scale, multi-year Creative Scotland funding was handed out just weeks before the CCA issued a stark warning over its finances - suggesting that someone at the government-funded arts organisation, which actually owns the CCA's building on Sauchiehall Street, should have maybe had a cursory glance at the books before coughing up £832,000.

Staff members I have spoken to have told of a "toxic" environment, for various different reasons and years of a slow collapse into the financial mire.

The latest in the saga is an investigation into its financial management which OSCR, the Scottish charities regulator, is to carry out in the coming months. I feel we have not heard the last of the CCA yet.

Mystery book launch

It was not quite clear why a bestselling Indian author whose novel is tipped to be made into a multi-season TV series decided to hold her global book launch in rainy old Edinburgh, but she did.

Swallowing the Sun, the debut novel by Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, has become one of the most significant literary successes to emerge from India in recent years.

The book's international rollout was formally launched last week at a reception at the capital's City Chambers, marking the first event in its worldwide release programme, with the author in conversation with Lady Joyce Caplan, chair of the Scottish Centre for Tagore Studies.

Having been snapped up by by Abundantia Entertainment, streaming services are reportedly circling, with Netflix rumoured to be the likely candidate.

Good luck to Ms Puri, who has now been officially adopted as an Edinburgh author.