Bridget Jones's Diary: A novel about the angst-ridden life of a thirty-something woman

Professor Lola Young, chairman of the judges, called British novels "piddling" and "parochial" compared with American women's fiction.

She said too many women writers tried to copy the style of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary, concentrating on the well-worn theme of women worrying about careers, boyfriends and children.

"Many of the British books about 30-something young women were incredibly insular.

"There is a cult of big advances going to photogenic young women to write about their own lives and who they had to dinner, as if that is all there is to life.

"These people may not be writing a novel because they have got something to say but because it's fashionable to write these sorts of novels. I would encourage them to think bigger," she said.

Professor Young, who is Professor of Cultural Studies at Middlesex University, said American women writers tended to write on a more sweeping, epic scale.

Beryl Bainbridge's novel Master Georgie, which won the WHSmith literary award earlier this year, was dropped from the final shortlist.

Bainbridge, who was named Author of the Year at the British Book Awards in February, said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper: "It's nonsense to say our books have got stuffy, domestic or parochial. Who is this woman?

"It is our piddling critics and judges which may be the problem," she said.

The Orange Prize will be awarded in London on 8 June.

The Orange Prize shortlist

• Julia Blackburn: The Leper's Companion
• Marilyn Bowering: Visible Worlds.
• Suzanne Berne: A Crime In The Neighbourhood
• Jane Hamilton: The Short History Of A Prince
• Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible
• Toni Morrison: Paradise.