James Tapsfield and Amy Caulfield

Cherie Blair yesterday insisted she would not quit as a judge - despite being accused of bringing the legal profession into disrepute with her memoirs.

Mrs Blair expressed "sadness" after top barrister Gerald Butler, QC, branded her revelations "inappropriate" but added defiantly: "I enjoy the law and intend to continue to practise."

She also rejected criticism for writing about the death of Dr David Kelly, saying it would have been "impossible" not to feature the government scientist in her book.

The wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair is said to have received a £1m advance for her autobiography, which goes into great detail about life behind the No 10 door.

It paints unflattering portraits of some top political figures, including Gordon Brown, who is described as "rattling the keys" over Mr Blair in his rush to take charge of Downing Street.

But Mrs Blair insisted she merely wanted to tell her story.

"One of my motivations in writing the book is, for the last 13 years really, since Tony became leader of the Labour Party, many people have written about me, have spoken about me but I have not spoken for myself," she told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

"For me it was a time to look back on the last 50 years."

In her memoirs, Mrs Blair speaks of her husband's "shock" on learning of Dr Kelly's death and how the couple invited his widow to Chequers so they could say "how personally sorry they were about what happened".

But yesterday, Derek Vawdrey, brother of Dr Kelly's widow, Janice, told one newspaper that Downing Street was responsible for his death and that Mrs Blair should be "ashamed of herself" for using his suicide to bolster her husband's image.

Mrs Blair told Woman's Hour: "I'm sorry he feels like that but it's very much a part of the story. We met the Kelly family later and I really don't want to say any more about it than I said in the book."

She added: "David Kelly's death was a huge tragedy for the Kelly family first and foremost but ... to tell the story about being in No 10 and not to mention David Kelly I think would be actually really impossible."

Former judge Mr Butler hit out at the memoirs, saying they were "not appropriate" and Mrs Blair "should not continue to sit as a recorder".

But asked if she was going to resign, Mrs Blair said: "I certainly won't."

She added: "I'm sad he feels like that but I also think that today is the day the book is published so many comments about the book have been spoken only on the extracts.

"If anyone reads the book I don't think they would draw that conclusion from it."

The former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, leapt to Mrs Blair's defence last night, insisting: "Cherie is highly respected in the legal profession and it is wrong to suggest that writing her memoirs should make the slightest bit of difference to a job she does extremely well."

She also received backing from an unexpected quarter in the form of Gordon Brown.

"I have enjoyed working with both Tony Blair and Cherie Blair over the years and I have got nothing but praise for the work they did for our country, and continue to do," he said.