Arts Diary: Will Marriott

The Magic of Motown, obviously.The stage show, which features a cracking line-up of tribute acts, is coming to Bradford tomorrow.

The show celebrates the music of Motown and, while we'll never get the chance to see a set of acts as impressive as Motown boasted at the height of its popularity, this is as close as you'll get.

Bradford's St George's Hall will play host to the show tomorrow night with tributes to: The Temptations, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie, Martha Reeves, The Isley Brothers and many more.

While plenty of tribute shows out there are, let's say of dubious quality, this lot have already sold out London's O2, Glasgow's SECC and Wales' Millennium Centre, so there's a pretty good chance of some high quality stuff. And with hits including Stop in the Name of Love, I Want You Back and I Heard it Through the Grapevine, there'll be dancing in the aisles for sure. Tickets on 01274 432000.

Good news for Amy Sackville this week. The debut novelist, who studied English and Theatre Studies at Leeds University, was this week named the winner of one of the UK's oldest literary prizes.

Her book, The Still Point, won Sackville the honour of The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, which was founded in 1942.

The 29-year-old walked off with the award, which has previously been won by Andrew Motion, Margaret Drabble and William Boyd, for a book the judges said was "beautifully constructed" and "encapsulates all the qualities of a young, emerging writer".

It's an impressive start to a literary career for the Leeds graduate who went on to work in publishing after university. The book begins as a tale about a failed attempt to conquer the North Pole before moving 100 years ahead to focus on the explorer's great-great niece – and it was also longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction earlier this year.

Anyone who wanted to see Tim Crouch's play The Author but missed out (and there are plenty out there – the show sold out pretty quickly) then the good news is the writer is coming back to Yorkshire. Crouch has been in touch to let us know that My Arm, his first play, is being performed at the new Northern Ballet Theatre building at Quarry Hill.

The play is summed up by a brilliant line in the script: "At the age of 10, for want of anything more meaningful to do, I put my arm above my head and kept it there. Now, 30 years on, I'm so full of meaning it's killing me." The play, which has been performed around the world as well as being produced for radio, is at Leeds Met at Northern Ballet Theatre building on Wed, Dec 1, at 7.30pm. Tickets on 0113 2208008.