Singer Lily Allen will be among the judging panel of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008, it has been announced today.

The outspoken pop star, who reached number one in the charts with her hit single Smile, will join the five-strong panel for the prestigious award, now in its thirteenth year.

The panel will be chaired by the broadcaster Kirsty Lang and other judges are the novelist Philippa Gregory, the writer Bel Mooney and the journalist Lisa Allardice.

Lang said: "I was extremely honoured to be asked to chair this year's Orange Broadband Prize, if not a little daunted by the task. However, I do have a very strong line-up of judges which should make for some lively debates.

"I'm excited by the international aspect of this prize and one of the best books I read last year was Half of a Yellow Sun and I would probably not have read it had it not won the Orange."

The prize was set up in 1996 to promote women’s fiction and can be entered by any woman writing in English, regardless of her nationality or age. Previous winners include; Zadie Smith for On Beauty, Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk About Kevin and Kate Grenville for The Idea of Perfection.

The shortlist to the £30,000 prize will be released in April and the winner announced at a ceremony in June.

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