A game of two halves from Malcolm Gladwell. Or not.

Malcolm Gladwell hit Edinburgh last night, to speak at the Festival Theatre. Yes, that Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers. And a new one called "What the dog saw".

Well, what this dog saw was Malcolm Gladwell. For fifty minutes.

To open his talk, he made a decent joke about how he'd understand if anyone had to leave early to form a new government. And then started on his theme, which was serendipity.

He told us about the three types of serendipity, or happy accidental discovery (and admitted that this wasn't his idea, but that of Robert Friedel).

Columbian serendipity is when you go looking for something and discover something else (like Columbus discovering The Americas when he was searching for China and India).

Archimedean serendipity is when you're trying to find an answer, and suddenly find it in an unusual place, as did Archimedes when he realised the solution to his problem (how do you measure the mass of an unusual object) when he spilled water on getting into his bath.

And finally, Galilean serendipity, which is when you build a tool or process for discovery, and find something completely new. Galileo built a completely new telescope, to search the heavens. When he did, he discovered new planets, new moons - and by coming back night after night to the sky, realised that moons travel round planets, and planets round the Sun. In other words, our world was centred on the Sun, not Earth.

Incidentally, this led to him being attacked by the Church, charged with heresy, and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. But don't worry, the Church finally expressed regret for the way he was treated in, er, 1992.

So back to Malcolm Gladwell.

The main content of his presentation was the role of Serendipity in discovery and research, particularly with regard to the search for cancer cures. His central story was that of a biotechnology research company on the outskirts of Boston, running two major programmes (or programs, I suppose I should say) of cancer drug research.

As everything around them failed, and they were about to collapse completely, they received unexpected news that one of their trials had succeeded, beyond all expectations. Serendipitously, a rare chemical they had sourced in the badlands of Soviet science had proven to be effective.

What an inspiring and exciting story. Until he finished with the punchline that in third level trials - the most important, large-scale ones - it failed.

And that wasn't only the punchline to the story, but the show. He said thank you, left the stage, and went off to sign books in the foyer.

We - and most of the audience - sat for a while as the lights went up. Was it an interval? Was anyone selling ice cream? Time for a quick one in the Pear Tree before the re-start?

No, that was the end of the show. Fifty minutes. For Malcolm, it was over in a ... Blink, I suppose.

I don't think it's the "Fifty Minutes for £17.50" I object to. Honestly - I didn't even pay for my ticket, it was a gift. But we did feel short-changed.

I think it was the "Is that it? Is that really it?" that hurt.

I like Malcolm Gladwell. I really like Malcolm Gladwell's books. But sheesh, Malc. Give a bit more to your audience, will you?

Top tips we learned last night:

1. It's good to leave them wanting more. But not that much.
2. If you are the one with ideas and knowledge, do a Q&A.
   
3. Resolve the conversation. "And then it failed" is not a satisfactory conclusion.
   
4. Suruchi across the road from the Festival Theatre does a fabulous curry.