EVENTS

Paranormal goings on in Bristol this weekend where a conspiracy of UFO-logists will be gathering for Encounter, breathlessly billed by the publicists as Britain's "biggest UFO event ever". On board will be Nick Pope (dubbed "the real Fox Mulder" after investigating UFOs for the Ministry of Defence) and American crop-circle expert Colin Andrews, who will be showing a film of alien spacecraft wantonly making patterns in fields. Dennis Plunket of the quaintly-named British Flying Saucer Bureau will also be around to talk about "local sightings". Reg Presley will be guest presenting nine hours of film, original music, video graphics and exhibitions of alien sculpture, after which he will presumably climb back into his pod and jet off to planet Trogg.

New Trinity Centre, Bristol. Tickets from Bristol record stores or credit card hotline (0117-929 9008) Sun 12-9pm pounds 15

DANCE

Don't miss the final performances of Peter Darrel's enormously popular The Nutcracker over the coming weeks. Exquisitely designed, and beautifully danced by the Scottish Ballet, this is a sugar plum fairy of a show (above). Theatre Royal, Glasgow (0141-332 9000) to 21 Dec

BOOKS

"For Charles Evans, King of Publishers, affectionately Graham Greene. I'm sorry about Priestley's libel action". So goes the handwritten testimony in the front of one of the literary lots at Sothebys on Monday. Among the film scripts, posters and proof copies to be auctioned is this annotated first edition of Stamboul Train, presented by the author to the publisher who had accepted his first book. Unfortunately, the novel had already excited the litigious interest of one J.B Priestley who, after reading a review copy, had wrongly concluded that the character of Savory was based on himself. An unneccessarily glum, not to say narcissistic reading, since Greene had never met the author or read any of his work.

Sothebys, Bloomfield Place, London (0171-493 8080) Mon 2.30pm

HYPE ALERT

The desperate bid to put the Christ back into Christmas, has stooped to depths that should have even the trendiest vicars putting down their guitars in shock. This year's clever yoof-oriented campaign is selling the Christian festival as "Bad Hair Day - You're a Virgin, you've just given birth and now three kings have shown up... find out the happy ending at a church near you". Hopefully, this sharp piece of copywriting will be followed up by other tasteful campaigns such as "Thank God It's Sunday" and "Bad crucifixion day - you wake up late on Sunday, with sore palms, feeling like you've been to hell and back..."

Two mummified dinosaur eggs go on sale in New York today and are expected to fetch up to pounds 200, 000. The eggstortionate prices are due to the fact that the ancient ova are thought to be well-preserved enough to enable Jurassic Park-style extraction of their DNA.

Luvvie-lovers should have their cheque-books ready for a charity auction on Wednesday, when bric a brac from the Royal National Theatre's wardrobe will be flogged off at Sothebys. Among the props and costumes available from 50p is Nigel Hawthorne's glass potty from the Madness of George III.

A film version of Nick Hornby's seminal footie novel, Fever Pitch, is scheduled for release early next year. Hornby's confessional biography comes to the screen complete with Colin "Mr Darcy" Firth in the leading role of the Arsenal obsessive. Any dissimilarities between Firth and the follically-challenged author are purely coincidental.