People

The Israeli author Amos Oz has been awarded Spain's most prestigious literary prize for his work denouncing extremism and advocating peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The Prince of Asturias literature prize, named after Crown Prince Felipe, to be presented in the autumn in Oviedo, carries $67,000 (£33,462) and a reproduction statue by the artist Joan Miró. The judges said Oz turns Hebrew into "a brilliant literary instrument while revealing certain truths about the most pressing and universal realities of our times." Oz himself responded: "If I have to say in one word what my entire literary work is all about, I would say families. If I had two words, I would say unhappy families. If I had more than two words, you would have to read my works."

An early opportunity for Alan Johnson, the new health secretary, to prove that he's singing from the same hymn sheet as Gordon Brown will come next Tuesday lunchtime, when he's promised to join the Parliamentary Choir to sing songs of summer at St Matthew's Church, Westminster. It's part of the Sing London festival, all next week, which will see singalongs in cafes, galleries and libraries, a singalong Tosca at the Royal Opera House, a singing bus passing down Oxford Street and even an appearance by the Guardian staff choir - the Guardian Angels, naturally - at our newsroom archive. It's all in the cause of getting Londoners to sing together and so feel friendlier. Well, that's the hope.

The microscopic sculptor Willard Wigan - he's not small but his sculptures are tiny - has just completed his most complex project, a depiction of the Lloyd's Building in the City of London, small enough to rest on the head of a pin. It's being auctioned by the David Lloyd Gallery, owned by the former tennis player, who recently purchased the artist's entire oeuvre - 70 pieces - and has insured it for £11.2m. Lloyd says it's a breath-taking work.

The original manuscript of The Good Earth, the 1930s novel which won its author, Pearl S Buck, the Pulitzer Prize and helped propel her towards the Nobel prize for literature in 1938, has turned up after being missing for more than 40 years. It came to light this week at a Philadelphia auction house after the daughter of one of the author's former secretaries put it up for sale. The typewritten manuscript disappeared in 1966 and the author herself died in 1973, apparently still wondering where it had gone. No charges are likely, but it will now go to the author's literary foundation.

Arun Arora, press officer for the hyper-active Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, is being ordained himself this weekend. The former solicitor says he wants to become a priest "to be more like Jesus Christ", which is a change from most PR men, who just want to play God. No spinning for him then.