Lily Allen to judge Orange women's fiction award
Royal Society of Literature unimpressed
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Brit songstress Lily Allen has been selected a judge for next year's Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, joining chair Kirsty Lang, Guardian Review editor Lisa Allardice, novelist Philippa Gregory and novelist, journalist and children’s author Bel Mooney on the panel for the women-only £30k award.
Lang, described as a "journalist and broadcaster", enthused: "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."
The line is not, however, as "strong" as some might like. Maggie Gee, chair of the Royal Society of Literature, protested to the Telegraph: "Where is the seriousness here? Lily would be fine as the light relief, her songs are great. But the chair herself is not an author. There is a shortage of serious writers on this panel.
"It seems to be another consequence of this obsession with celebrity. We seem to have to have them on panels like this whether they know anything about books or not. If Lily reads a lot, whole books and serious books, then she is a fair choice. But that is not something she is known for.
"If she has just been chosen for her celebrity then that seems to be a ridiculous thing."
Last year's prize was awarded to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun, described as a novel about "about Africa, about moral responsibility, the end of colonialism, ethnic allegiances, class and race, and about how love can complicate all these things".
Ms Allen is herself no stranger to telco-sponsored plaudits. Back in 2006, she secured "best pop artist" at the BT Digital Music Awards, and hasn't looked back since with her accessible yet thoughtful musings on how love can complicate just about anything. ®
COMMENTS
Ahem
"Orange women's fiction award"? Surely Judith Chalmers would be the obvious choice?
@ Matt
well, i am not old enough to start a family and anyway, i don't see how having children is related to the argument i was making earlier. So your comment on 'stop making excuses and make a decision' is beyond the point. I was not arguing about choosing between career and children, i am talking about equality in salaries.
And i admit that i have only been working in 'white collar' jobs for 3 years. Even if my experience is limited, i can still read an organisational chart. When out of 30 odd people at the top of the pyramid, only one is a woman, well this makes me wonder how hard the competition will be to get up there.
Finally, i just want to say that i do deal with it. i was stating a simple fact that i have observed and my life goes on regardless of whether people choose to pretend that some discrimination is inexistent because they have never seen/heard it. Sure there is unequality in all classes/race/sex by all kinds of people. It's not because it exists in many cases, that it is excusable in any of them.
@triky and @minority Groups AC
Have you ever actually moved up the ladder or just viewed it from the bottom?
If so you'll see that the bottom rung has LOTS of jokes directed at EVERYONE. But no just shut your eyes to that.
I have never heard the excuses for women making bad decisions in a managment position that you have written (or for anyone).... If you screw up, doesn't matter what gender/race/orientation you are, your still out on your arse.
Seriously, stop making excuses and make a decision..... Equality means that you have to pick one OR the other. Work or family, you can't earn the most money AND spend all your time with your family.
And as AC further up said, the most unprotected shit upon class IS the white male.
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