Bridget Jones's Diary twenty years on
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary we asked some of our favourite authors what they thought Bridget would be like in 2016.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary we asked some of our favourite authors what they thought Bridget would be like in 2016.
2016 marked the 20th anniversary of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary, meaning perennial thirty-something Bridget would be 52 this year.
In celebration of our favourite pissed, chain-smoking, Londoner we asked some of our favourite authors what they thought Bridget would be like in 2016.
Lisa Owens, author of Not Working
'It isn't hard to imagine Bridget Jones today, scrolling through clean eating Instagram feeds while devouring a bar of Green & Black's. In our aggressively-filtered, perfection-obsessed culture, Bridget would fall inevitably, hilariously short - and make the rest of us feel better about doing the same.'
Not Working
by Lisa Owens
Claire Flannery has had more than a few sleepless nights lately. Maybe she shouldn't have walked out of her job with no idea what to do next. Maybe she should think before she speaks -- and maybe then her mother would start returning her calls. Maybe she should be spending more time going to art galleries, or reading up on current affairs, and less time in her pyjamas, entering competitions on the internet. Then again, maybe the perfect solution to life's problems only arises when you stop looking for it . . .
Kate Eberlen, author of Miss You
'One of the many wonderfully identifiable things about Bridget Jones is that she, like many of us, is obsessed with popular culture while knowing she should really be focussing on more serious issues. So, if she could ever get off Twitter (which I doubt), I'd love to see her participating in Masterchef – has anyone ever offered Greg and John blue soup? – or even The Great British Sewing Bee, maybe fashioning a burlesque costume from some of her mother's old scatter cushions?'
Miss You
by Kate Eberlen
Perfect for fans of One Day, Miss You is the story of Tess and Gus, who are meant to be. They just haven’t met properly yet . . . Both on holiday in Florence, their paths cross for just one day. Over the next sixteen years, life and chance keeps them apart, but will fate eventually bring them together?
Anna Raverat, author of Lover
'Nowadays I see Bridget as a kind of big sister figure, and what I'd like her advice on is: Big knickers: can they ever be sexy? Face lifts: not as bad as Botox, right? And, was it wrong to shag the builder?'
Lover
by Anna Raverat
Kate is smart, successful and adept at making people feel at home: her husband Adam, her children, the guests of the hotel chain she works for. But her own foundations are about to be knocked away – for while Kate has been building a life, Adam's attention has been elsewhere. Who is the woman he’s been emailing? And whose number keeps showing up on his phone? Kate tries to hold things together for her daughters, but what can she say, now Adam won’t be coming home? As Kate searches for answers, she is forced to reassess her family, her future, and the man she thought she knew . . .
Jonathan Harvey, author of The History of Us
'When I first read Bridget Jones I saw much of myself and my friends in her. I like to think I have completely matured now and am nothing like that. But it's impossible to lie. Me and my friends still drink a bit too much wine, put our feet in it a bit too much, sing along loudly to the same songs we did all those years ago. We might be more grown up, certainly a lot fatter (but we might still be able to get away with that top we got in Hyper Hyper in the 90s if we just breathe in ENOUGH), and we might have more responsibilities now. But our subtext is always.. are we really good enough. Shit. Did I say too much?'
The History of Us
by Jonathan Harvey
Liverpool 1985
Kathleen, Adam and Jocelyn are three teenage friends who bond over an unconventional nativity play. They all have ambitions, they all have dreams. Adam wants to be a writer, Jocelyn wants to sing and Kathleen – well, she wants to be an embalmer.
London 2015
Kathleen is a borderline alcoholic, Adam is holding on to a shocking secret and Jocelyn is dead. Where did it all go wrong? How did having the world at their feet turn into having the weight of it on their shoulders?
Caitlin Moran, author of How To Be a Woman
'Bridget is a palpable, living thing. You see her everywhere – in bars; panicking in changing rooms; struggling with a dull career; staring at the calorie-count on the back of ready-meals in M&S; trying to readThe Beauty Myth on the Tube, but wishing it was Grazia; counselling weeping friends; falling over; snatching drinks off tables on the way out, and just trying to find some fun – some glorious, hooting fun – in this busy, mad, unhappy, racing world.'
Bridget Jones's Diary
Read Caitlin Moran's introduction in the 20th anniversary Picador Classic edition of Bridget Jones's Diary.