Helen Fielding Page 2

As Renée Zellweger hits the red carpet to promote Bridget Jones’ latest escapades, Bridget’s creator, author Helen Fielding, has been telling fans where the perpetual singleton will be appearing next. Appearing on This Morning with Phillip and Holly, the 58-year-old revealed a musical adaptation of her novel is in the works and should hit theatres within the next few years.

Helen Fielding revealed Bridget Jones could be appearing in theatres soon

While promoting Bridget’s third film, Bridget Jones’ Baby, Helen said: "We have done quite a lot of work on the musical and in workshops.

Continue reading: Bridget Jones' Author Reveals A West End Version Of The Book Is In The Works

Bridget Jones is coming back with a new novel set to be published on 11 October. Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries will accompany the new film which follows Bridget becoming a first time mother. Fans had previously thought that no new book was on the way, after the last instalment Mad About the Boy was released in 2013.

Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones

Author Helen Fielding said: “At heart, Bridget Jones is about the gap between how we all feel we’re expected to be and how we actually are; and – as Bridget discovers with her somewhat bumpy pregnancy – how we expect life to turn out and how it actually does.”

Continue reading: There's A New 'Bridget Jones' Book Coming In October

Who said the book industry was on its knees? Despite rather average review of her latest book, Helen Fielding's third Bridget Jones novel Mad About The Boy sold more than 46,000 copies in just one day across hardback, e-book and audiobook formats last week.

Bridget Jones At A Signing of 'Mad About The Boy'

Those familiar with literary sales will know that's a phenomenal total and far above expectations. By comparison, the high profile release of William Boyd's James Bond novel Solo sold 8,293 in three days.

Continue reading: Helen Fielding's 'Mad About The Boy' Outsells Bond By 38,000 Copies

Helen Fielding's decision to kill of major character Mark Darcy in the latest instalment of the Bridget Jones series Mad About the Boy was met with disdain and disappointment from fans. 

Helen Fielding, The Author of The Bridget Jones Novels

An extended excerpt in the Sunday Times Magazine revealed that Jones was now a windowed mother of two, despite getting engaged to Darcy in the second book, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

Continue reading: Helen Fielding To Colin Firth: "Are You Sitting Down? Yeah...Darcy's Dead"

Now that the new Bridget Jones’ Diary book has a name – Mad About The Boy – all that’s left to do is get excited about what’s in it, and look forward to the new film. Luckily, the book’s author, Helen Fielding, has opened up on exactly that.

So what obstacles does Bridget face in the latest instalment of her diary? Well, modern media is certainly one of them. The advent of Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Instagram, Tumblr - all these platforms, occurred between her 90’s outing and now, and that’s certainly something she has to get to grips with. Fielding suggested that her creation will be dealing with the pressures women face to look like stars "on the red carpet," or the "gap" between how we're told we should be and "how we are inside." She added that the third book is a "fun" book, adding, " I'm not trying to write social commentary." Comedy, she said, "always comes from a place of truth."

But while information on the book is flowing steady, and gossip on the film has been sparse. In fact, whenever the film is mentioned, we either get told it’s a long way away, or that there’s no information. "I do think it would make a good movie," said Fielding, who, according to U.S Weekly seemed uneasy with the subject, probably because it’s premature. She would, however, like to see Rene Zellweger return to the role that shot her to prominence. "Yes, she's wonderful," she said.

Continue reading: Bridget Jones Diary - What We Can Expect From The New Book

One of Britain’s best-loved characters is back for a more modern adventure. Bridget Jones, who will be living her tragic life in London, will be battling with tropes of the modern world in the recently named Mad About The Boy – the third book in the series.

One of those tropes will be social media, something that poor old Jones didn’t have to deal with back in the 90s, but now, it’s very much a part of her love life, or lack of it. An excerpt of the book reveals her struggles, according to Sky News. "You see, this is the trouble with the modern world. If it was the days of letter-writing, I would never even have started to find his address, a pen, a piece of paper, an envelope, a stamp and gone outside at 11.30pm to find a postbox," it reads. Another says, "A text is gone at the brush of a fingertip, like a nuclear bomb or Exocet missile. Dating Rule No 1: Do not text when drunk."

Fans of the films, though, will have to make a cup of tea and sit patiently. Maybe even, 100 cups of tea, if the star of the first two films, Colin Firth, is to be believed. "Unfortunately, it might be a bit of a long wait," he said. "I wouldn't say that it's completely dead in the water, but the way it's going you might be seeing Bridget Jones' granddaughter's story being told by the time we get there."

Continue reading: New Bridget Jones Book Name Announced, Film Will Be A Long Wait

She's still working on the book, so don't take that already vague release date too seriously, but Helen Fielding's popular Bridget Jones' diary is to return in the form of a third book, with the third film also set for 2013

Fielding's literary agents, Aitken Alexander Associates, say there is no concrete date as Helen "is still writing the book" and a spokesperson told Newsbeat, they are "under the impression it could be on sale in October of this year". So with the new film already having been confirmed, will the book be focussed on Bridget Jones' baby? We think it will be. Any news on the franchise has been minimal, but speaking to BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour last November, Fielding said: "I'm having a lot of fun and it's very funny and it's making me laugh." Now all she's got to do is make us laugh!

The Jones' Diary books actually started as a column in the independent before Fielding turned her character into a worldwide household name. Both of the existing books sold more than 15 million copies and are published in more than 40 countries around the world. The subsequent films were also instant Brit-hits, taking more than $280 million (£178m) at the box office.

Continue reading: New Bridget Jones' Diary Book Set For Autumn, New Film To Follow

200 years since Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was first published, there is still not a woman anywhere who can watch Colin Firth's Mr Darcy and not swoon.

There are very few girls who cannot read Austen from Sense and Sensibility through Mansfield Park and Emma, and not find themselves a female character and say 'that's me', or recognise in squirming embarrassment that Mr and Mrs Bennett are their parents, to a T. But most importantly, there are few romance narratives from the 20th or 21st century that aren't in some small way derivative of Austen's approach to love and to her unique and ultimately irresistible creation of what have become classic love stories, the Austen notion of romance. 

There are the obvious novels and movies that pay homage to the 18th century writer. Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones' Diary is a conscious adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which sees Bridget (Elizabeth) having to choose between Daniel Cleaver and the uppity pomp of Mark Darcy, who - as in Austen's original - is averse to our feminine protagonist on grounds of propriety and wealth, but who, nevertheless runs with his heart rather than his head, eventually, and marries her (or, at least, gets engaged).

Continue reading: How Jane Austen's Idea Of Romance Is Still The Benchmark, Two Centuries On From Pride And Prejudice

Bridget Jones is set to make a return, as Helen Fielding prepares to publish a second sequel to her fictional Bridget Jones’ Diary, published in 1996.

The original book became a global sensation in its own right, as the world fell in love with Fielding’s fictional character, Bridget Jones. That popularity then grew when the novel was adapted for a Hollywood movie, with Renee Zellweger as the central character.

17 years after that first novel was published, the news comes that Fielding plans to resurrect Bridget’s story. The publisher Jonathan Cape has acquired the publishing rights to the book, which is expected to hit bookstores in Autumn 2013, according to The Telegraph. Dan Franklin, a spokesperson for Jonathan Cape, said “Great comic writers are as rare as hen’s teeth. Helen is one of a very select band who have created a character, Bridget, of whom the very thought makes you smile. Like millions of others, I can’t wait to see what’s happened to her.”

Continue reading: Third Bridget Jones Book From Helen Fielding Planned For Autumn 2013