Showbiz
Book award chairman defends Lily Allen
Published Thursday, Apr 17 2008, 06:52 BST | By Beth Hilton

Rex Features
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.
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