Helen Fielding

Helen Fielding
Born	(1958-02-19) 19 February 1958 (age 66) Morley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Occupation	Journalist, novelist, screenwriter
Nationality	British
Education	St Anne's College, Oxford
Partner	Kevin Curran[1] (died 2016)
Children	2

Helen Fielding^[2] (born 19 February 1958)^[3] 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 three movies, with a fourth movie announced in April 2024 for release in 2025.

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.^[4]

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.^[5] In a survey conducted by The Guardian, Bridget Jones's Diary was named as one of the ten novels that best defined the 20th century.^[6] In 2024, the New York Times named Bridget Jones’s Diary as one of the twenty two funniest novels since Catch 22.^[7]

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 with the most recent opening, with Bridget Jones’s Baby breaking UK box office records.^[8]

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, Sarah Lyall 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, announced for release in 2025, will see Renee Zellweger reprising her role as Bridget Jones for the fourth time. The movie will be based on Fielding’s novel and original screenplay, further developed by a team including writers Dan Mazer and Abi Morgan.^[9]

In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Fielding was named the 29th most influential person in British culture. In December 2016, the BBC's Woman's Hour included Bridget Jones as one of the seven women who had most influenced British female culture over the last seven decades.^[10] 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.