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Helen Fielding (born 19 February 1958) is a British journalist, novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones. Fielding’s first novel was set in a refugee camp in East Africa and she started writing Bridget Jones in an anonymous column in London’s ''Independent'' newspaper. This turned into an unexpected hit, leading to four Bridget Jones novels and four movies. Fielding credits the success of Bridget Jones to tapping into the gap between how we all feel we are expected to be and how we really are. Fielding’s novel ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' (1996) became a surprise global bestseller, published in over 40 countries. Fielding continued to chronicle Bridget’s life in the novels ''Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' (1999), '' Bridget Jones’s Baby: the Diaries'' (2017) and '' Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'' (2013) all of which became international bestsellers. In a survey conducted by ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' was named as one of the ten novels that best defined the 20th century. In 2024, the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' named ''Bridget Jones’s Diary'' as one of the twenty two funniest novels since ''Catch 22''. The movies chronicling these adventures: '' Bridget Jones’s Diary'', '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' and '' Bridget Jones’s Baby'', all did extremely well at the international box office. Fielding’s novel, ''Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'' (2013), explored Bridget’s life as a widowed mother to two small children and her attempts to re-enter the dating scene. It occupied the number one spot on the ''Sunday Times'' bestseller list for six months. In her review for the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'',
Sarah Lyall Sarah Lambert Lyall is an American journalist who has long written for ''The New York Times'', currently as a writer at large and including an 18-year period as the paper's London correspondent. Biography Raised in New York City, Lyall attended t ...
called the novel “sharp and humorous” and said that Fielding had “allowed her heroine to grow up into someone funnier and more interesting than she was before.” The movie '' Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'', released in 2025, has Renee Zellweger reprising her role as Bridget Jones for the fourth time. The movie is based on Fielding’s novel and original screenplay, further developed by a team including writers
Dan Mazer Daniel Gideon Mazer (born 4 October 1971) is a British director, screenwriter, producer, and comedian. He is best known as the long-time writing and production partner of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and worked with him on his three unorthodox cha ...
and Abi Morgan. In a 2004 poll for the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
, Fielding was named the 29th most influential person in
British culture The culture of the United Kingdom is influenced by its History of the United Kingdom, combined nations' history, its interaction with the cultures of Europe, the individual diverse cultures of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and ...
. In December 2016, the BBC's ''
Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...
'' included Bridget Jones as one of the seven women who had most influenced British female culture over the last seven decades. Bridget was the only woman included who was not actually a real-life person. Fielding is currently at work on a new non-Bridget novel.


Biography

Fielding grew up in
Morley, West Yorkshire Morley is a market town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England. Morley is the largest town in the borough after Leeds itself. Morley forms part of the Heavy Wooll ...
, a textile town on the outskirts of
Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
in the north of England. Her father was
managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
of a textile factory, next door to the family home, that produced cloth for miners' donkey jackets. He died in 1982 and her mother, Nellie, remained in Yorkshire, dying in 2021. Fielding attended Wakefield Girls' High School, one of the
Grammar School A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
s in the Wakefield Grammar School Foundation. She has three siblings. Fielding read English at
St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. ...
and was part of the Oxford revue at the 1978
Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...
. Fielding began work at the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
in 1979 as a regional researcher on the news magazine '' Nationwide''. She progressed to working as a production manager and director on various entertainment shows. In 1985, Fielding produced and directed a live satellite broadcast from a
refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for in ...
in Eastern
Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
for the launch of ''
Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...
''. She also wrote and produced documentaries in Africa for the first two ''Comic Relief'' fundraising broadcasts. In 1989, she was a researcher for an edition of the Thames TV '' This Week'' series "Where Hunger is a Weapon" about the Southern Sudan rebel war. These experiences formed the basis for her
debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...
, '' Cause Celeb''. From 1990 to 1999, she worked as a
journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
and columnist on several national newspapers, including ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'', ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' and ''
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...
''. Her best-known work, '' Bridget Jones's Diary'', began its life as an unattributed column in ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' in 1995. The success of the column led to four novels and four film adaptations. Fielding was part of the screenwriting team for all four.


Bridget Jones

Fielding's first novel, '' Cause Celeb'', was published in 1994 to great reviews but limited sales. She was struggling to make ends meet while working on her second novel, a satire about cultural divides in the
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
when she was approached by London's ''The Independent'' newspaper to write a column as herself about single life in London. Fielding rejected this idea as too embarrassing and exposing, and offered instead to create an imaginary, exaggerated, ironically comic character. Writing anonymously, she felt able to be honest about the preoccupations of single women in their thirties. The column quickly acquired a following, her identity was revealed and her publishers asked her to replace her novel about the Caribbean by a novel on ''Bridget Jones's Diary''. The hardback was published in 1996 to good reviews but modest sales. The paperback, published in 1997, went straight to the top of the best-seller chart, stayed there for over six months and went on to become a worldwide best-seller. Fielding continued her columns in ''The Independent'', and then ''The Daily Telegraph'' until 1997, publishing a second Bridget novel, '' The Edge of Reason'', in November 1999. The film of ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' was released in 2001 and its sequel in 2004. Fielding contributed the further adventures of Bridget Jones for ''The Independent'' from 2005. Fielding announced in November 2012 that she was writing a third instalment in the Bridget Jones series. '' Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'' was published in the UK by
Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in ...
and in the US by
Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...
in October 2013. It debuted at number one on ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'' bestseller list, and number seven on ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' bestseller list. By the time the UK paperback was published on 19 June 2014, sales had reached one million copies. The novel was shortlisted for the 15th Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, nominated in the Popular Fiction category of the
National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
. and has been translated into 32 languages. The movies '' Bridget Jones’s Diary'', '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' and ''Bridget Jones’s Baby'' have taken over three quarters of a billion dollars at the box office. Fielding wrote the original screenplays for ''Bridget Jones’s Diary'', ''Bridget Jones’s Baby'' and ''Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'', further developed by additional writers. ''Bridget Jones Diary'' was directed by Sharon Maguire, with the screenplay developed by Fielding, Andrew Davies and
Richard Curtis Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a British screenwriter, producer and director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known for romantic comedy-drama films, including ''Four Weddings and a Funeral' ...
.


Personal life

Fielding lives in London and also spends time in Los Angeles. She and Kevin Curran, a writer and executive producer on ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
'', began a relationship in 2000 and had two children. Curran died from cancer complications on 25 October 2016.


Philanthropic work

Helen is an Ambassador for: * Save the Children * The Yorkshire Children’s Charity: working to alleviate Child Poverty, in her native Yorkshire. * Ohana One: an organization of Los Angeles Plastic Surgeons, performing remote surgeries and surgical training in Mozambique and wider Africa using Smart Tech and Virtual Reality. * ''OxTales'', her collection of short stories, was published in aid of Oxfam in 2009.


Awards and nominations

*1997 British Book of the Year *2002
Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the name of two American labor unions representing writers in film, television, radio, and online media: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is headquartered in New York City and is affiliated wit ...
nomination, Best Screenplay *2002
BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
nomination, Best Screenplay *2002 ''
Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...
'' Award Best Screenplay *2013 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize shortlist, Comic Fiction *2013
National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
nomination, Best Popular Fiction *2016 (''Evening Standard'') Peter Sellers Award for Comedy *2016 Honorary Doctorate of Literature, University of York *2017 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for ''Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries'', Comic Novel of The Year


Bibliography

*'' Cause Celeb'' (1994) is a satire, based on the relationship between celebrities and refugees set in a camp in a fictional country in East Africa. *'' Bridget Jones's Diary'' (1996) *'' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' (1999) *'' Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination'' (2003), a comic spy novel set in Miami, Los Angeles, England and Sudan. *'' Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'' (2013) *'' Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries'' (2016)


Film adaptations

* '' Bridget Jones's Diary'' (2001). Starring
Renée Zellweger Renée Kathleen Zellweger ( ; born April 25, 1969) is an American actress. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Renée Zellweger, various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and four ...
,
Hugh Grant Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, and has since transitioned into a character actor. He has received List of awards ...
,
Colin Firth Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor and producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Colin Firth, several accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Aw ...
. Written by
Richard Curtis Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a British screenwriter, producer and director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known for romantic comedy-drama films, including ''Four Weddings and a Funeral' ...
, Andrew Davies, Helen Fielding. Directed by Sharon Maguire. Produced by
Working Title Films Working Title Films Limited, formerly Visionensure Limited and Working Title Limited, is a British film and television production company that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The company was founded by ...
. * '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' (2004). Starring Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth. Written by Adam Brooks, Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies, Helen Fielding. Directed by
Beeban Kidron Beeban Tania Kidron, Baroness Kidron, (born 2 May 1961), is a British politician and a filmmaker. She is an advocate for children's rights in the digital world and has played a role in establishing standards for online safety and privacy across ...
. Produced by Working Title Films. * '' Bridget Jones's Baby'' (2016) Starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth,
Patrick Dempsey Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and racing driver best known for playing neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy'' (2005–15; 2020–21). He is also known for his leading man romantic film roles, such ...
. Written by Helen Fielding, Emma Thompson, Dan Mazer, Directed by Sharon Maguire. Produced by Working Title Films. * '' Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'' (2025) Starring Renée Zellweger, Chiwetel Ejiofor,
Leo Woodall Leo Vincent Woodall (born 14 September 1996) is an English actor. He gained recognition with his roles in the second season of the HBO satirical anthology series '' The White Lotus'' (2022) and in the Netflix romantic drama miniseries '' One Day ...
, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant. Written by Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer, Abi Morgan. Directed by Michael Morris. Produced by Working Title Films.


References


External links


Helen Fielding profile and articles at ''The Guardian''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fielding, Helen 1958 births Living people English women novelists English humorists British chick lit writers Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford People from Morley, West Yorkshire British women humorists Bridget Jones Writers from Leeds