Book award chairman defends Lily Allen

The chairman of a book award panel has defended Lily Allen after she withdrew as a judge.

The singer joined the panel for this year's Orange Prize for Fiction last December but dropped out "by mutual consent" earlier this month.

She had previously failed to attend a meeting because she was depressed.

Chairman Kirsty Lang said she was happy with the decision to appoint Allen and accused critics of being "snobby and elitist".

She told The Times: "She reads, she writes her own songs, she's a wordsmith. Life got in the way.

"She lost a baby, her boyfriend left her and she was launching a new TV show. She was under a hell of a lot of pressure. She found the pressure of judging a major book prize on top of everything else too much."

The £30,000 award, which recognises the work of female authors, will be handed out on June 4.